Neurologic and neuroimaging findings in patients with COVID-19
Stéphane Kremer, François Lersy, Mathieu Anheim, Hamid Merdji, Maleka Schenck, Hélène Oesterle, Federico Bolognini, Julien Messié, Antoine Khalil, Augustin Gaudemer, Sophie Carré, Manel Alleg, Claire Lecocq, Emmanuelle Schmitt, René Anxionnat, François Zhu, Lavinia Jager, Patrick Nesser, Yannick Talla, Ghazi Hmeydia, Joseph Benzakoun, Catherine Oppenheim, Jean‐Christophe Ferré, Adel Maamar, B. Carsin-Nicol, Pierre‐Olivier Comby, F. Ricolfi, Pierre Thouant, Claire Boutet, Xavier Fabré, Géraud Forestier, Isaure de Beaurepaire, Grégoire Bornet, Hubert Desal, Grégoire Boulouis, Jérôme Berge, Apolline Kazémi, Nadya Pyatigorskaya, Augustin Lecler, Suzana Saleme, Myriam Edjlali, Basile Kerleroux, Jean‐Marc Constans, Pierre-Emmanuel Zorn, Muriel Mathieu, Seyyid Baloglu, François-Daniel Ardellier, Thibault Willaume, Jean‐Christophe Brisset, Sophie Caillard, Olivier Collange, Paul‐Michel Mertès, Francis Schneider, Samira Fafi‐Kremer, Mickaël Ohana, Ferhat Meziani, Nicolás Meyer, Julie Helms, François Cotton
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To describe neuroimaging findings and to report the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with neurologic manifestations. METHODS: In this retrospective multicenter study (11 hospitals), we included 64 patients with confirmed COVID-19 with neurologic manifestations who underwent a brain MRI. RESULTS: = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with COVID-19 may develop a wide range of neurologic symptoms, which can be associated with severe and fatal complications such as ischemic stroke or encephalitis. In terms of meningoencephalitis involvement, even if a direct effect of the virus cannot be excluded, the pathophysiology seems to involve an immune or inflammatory process given the presence of signs of inflammation in both CSF and neuroimaging but the lack of virus in CSF. CLINICALTRIALSGOV IDENTIFIER: NCT04368390.