COVID-19 Pandemic: A Neurological Perspective

Abstract

Even though severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been observed to principally affect the respiratory system, neurological involvements have already been reported in some published work. We have reviewed original articles, case reports, and existing open-source data-sets to delineate the spectrum of neurological disorders potentially observed in SARS-CoV-2 positive cases. Neurological involvement in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) corresponds to three situations: (a) neurological manifestations of viral infection, (b) postinfective neurological complications, and (c) infection in patients with neurological comorbidity. Neurological manifestations can further be subdivided into the central nervous system (headache, dizziness, alteration of the sensorium, ataxia encephalitis, stroke, and seizures) and peripheral nervous system (skeletal muscle injury and peripheral nerve involvement including hyposmia and hypogeusia) symptomatology. Post-infective neurological complications include demyelinating conditions. Reduced mobility and dementia as comorbidities may predispose a patient to have a viral infection. It is concluded that the pandemic of COVID-19 presents for a neurologist some unique challenges. We observe that SARS-CoV-2 may have various neurological manifestations and in many cases, neurological features may precede typical respiratory symptoms.

Central Nervous System Manifestations Associated with COVID-19

“…Patients with COVID-19 experience an impaired level of consciousness, which may reflect the disease severity. Viral encephalitis, septic encephalopathy, metabolic perturbation, stroke, and seizures with post-ictal confusion can be underlying causes of impaired consciousness [ 29 ]. In the study by Mao et al [ 5 ], 6 (7.5%) of 214 COVID-19 patients had impaired consciousness.…”

Designing a Network Proximity-Based Drug Repurposing Strategy for COVID-19

“…The phenotype query for group 4 was: “fever” OR “cough” OR “diarrhea” OR “pain” OR “nausea” OR “vomiting” OR “chills” OR “inflammation” OR “hemorrhagic” ( Supplementary Table S8 ). For group 5 (brain tissues) 2 sets of disease-related phenotypes were used in separate VarElect analyses, accounting for the reported neurological symptoms related to the central nervous system (group 5a, phenotype query: “dizziness” OR “headache” OR “consciousness” OR “encephalopathy” OR “encephalitis” OR “seizures” OR “stroke” OR “delirium,” Supplementary Table S9 ) or the peripheral nervous system (group 5b, phenotype query: “ageusia” OR “dysgeusia” OR “hypogeusia” OR “anosmia” OR “hyposmia” OR “myalgia” OR “myelitis” OR “pain” OR “Guillain-Barre,” Supplementary Table S10 ) ( Ahmad and Rathore, 2020 ; Lahiri and Ardila, 2020 ; Tsivgoulis et al, 2020 ).…”

Pathological Anatomy of Infection Caused by Sars-Cov-2

“…Авторы отметили, что высыпания были эритематозными в 77,8 % случаев, папулезными в 16,7 % и пустулезными в 5,6 % [93]. Так как кожные изменения могут встречаться при различных инфекци-в клетку, а также иммунокомплексное повреждение мышечных волокон [100].…”