Traumatic microbleeds are a common neuroimaging finding in traumatic brain injury, yet their clinical significance remains unclear. Griffin et al. report that traumatic microbleeds predict disability, and use MRI-guided histopathology to elucidate the underlying pathophysiology. They conclude that traumatic microbleeds may be a form of traumatic vascular injury.

ObjectivesTo determine if obesity and diabetes are risk factors for severe outcomes in COVID-19 and to compare patient outcomes in those two conditions.DesignRetrospective cohort study.SettingUrban tertiary care center in New York City.Participants302 patients admitted in an inpatient setting, ≥18 years old, with a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 via nasal PCR swab were randomly selected. Patients were separated into two cohorts based on their body mass index and hemoglobin A1c. 150 patients were placed in the non-obese, non-diabetic cohort and 152 patients were placed in the corresponding cohort (obesity alone, obesity and diabetes, and diabetes alone).MeasurementsPrimary outcomes were development of acute kidney injury, commencement of renal replacement therapy, aminotransferase elevation, troponin elevation, lactic acidosis, development of septic shock, use of vasopressors, presence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and intubation. The secondary outcomes were length of stay in days and mortality.ResultsPatients with obesity and/or diabetes were more likely to develop ARDS (79 patients vs 57 patients, p<0.0001) and to be intubated (71 patients vs 45 patients, p=0.0031). Patients with obesity and/or diabetes were more likely to require vasopressors (60 patients vs 41 patients, p=0.0284) and to develop lactic acidosis (median 3.15 mmol/L, IQR 1.8 to 5.2 mmol/L, p=0.0432). When comparing patients with diabetes with and without obesity against patients with obesity alone, they were more likely to develop ARDS (87.5%, p=0.0305). Despite these findings, there was no difference in mortality.ConclusionsIn patients hospitalised with COVID-19, those with obesity and/or diabetes were more likely to suffer severe complications, but had negligible differences in mortality. This highlights the importance of close monitoring of patients with these conditions and additional areas of research needed to explain the mortality findings.

No abstract

BackgroundAlthough patients with COVID-19 have a higher risk of acute ischemic stroke (AIS), the impact on stroke outcomes remains uncertain.AimsTo determine the clinical outcomes of patients with AIS and COVID-19 (AIS-COVID+).MethodsWe performed a systematic review and meta-analysis following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Our protocol was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42020211977). Systematic searches were last performed on June 3, 2021 in EMBASE, PubMed, Web-of-Science, Scopus, and CINAHL Databases. Inclusion criteria: (1) studies reporting outcomes on AIS-COVID+; (2) original articles published in 2020 or later; (3) study participants aged ≥18 years. Exclusion criteria: (1) case reports with <5 patients, abstracts, review articles; (2) studies analyzing novel interventions. Risk of bias was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Random-effects models estimated the pooled OR and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for mortality, modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score, length of stay (LOS), and discharge disposition.ResultsOf the 43 selected studies, 46.5% (20/43) reported patients with AIS without COVID-19 (AIS-COVID−) for comparison. Random-effects model included 7294 AIS-COVID+ and 158 401 AIS-COVID−. Compared with AIS-COVID−, AIS-COVID+ patients had higher in-hospital mortality (OR=3.87 (95% CI 2.75 to 5.45), P<0.001), less mRS scores 0–2 (OR=0.53 (95% CI 0.46 to 0.62), P<0.001), longer LOS (mean difference=4.21 days (95% CI 1.96 to 6.47), P<0.001), and less home discharge (OR=0.31 (95% CI 0.21 to 0.47), P<0.001).ConclusionsPatients with AIS-COVID had worse outcomes, with almost fourfold increased mortality, half the odds of mRS scores 0–2, and one-third the odds of home discharge. These findings confirm the significant impact of COVID-19 on early stroke outcomes.