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A new Danish study found that COVID-19 outpatients had a higher risk of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stroke and cerebral hemorrhage compared to COVID-19 negative patients, but most neurological disorders did not occur after COVID-19 more often than other respiratory infections afterwards, according to a recent study published in Frontiers in Neurology this June.
“More than two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the exact nature and evolution of COVID-19’s impact on neurological disorders remained undetermined,” said lead author Dr. Pardis Zarifkar, a member of the Department of Neurology at Rigshospitalet Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark.
“Previous studies have found an association with neurological syndromes, but it is not yet known whether COVID-19 also influences the occurrence of certain neurological diseases and whether it differs from other respiratory infections.”
The study, presented recently at the 8th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology, found that 43,375 people tested positive for COVID-19, while 876,356 people tested negative for the disease out of a total of 919,731 participants.
Small, pea-sized human midbrain-like organoids — which are essentially three-dimensional, multicellular, in vitro tissue constructs that mimic the human midbrain — are being grown from human stem cells so scientists can study how the human brain develops and communicates. A new Danish study found that COVID-19 outpatients had a higher risk of being diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stroke and cerebral hemorrhage compared to COVID-19 negative patients, but most neurological disorders did not occur after COVID-19 more often than other respiratory infections afterwards, according to a recent study published in Frontiers in Neurology this June.
(Hyunsoo Shawn Je, Duke Medical School-NUS)
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The study used electronic health records covering approximately 50% of Denmark’s population, which has an estimated population of 3 million.
The study analyzed those who tested positive for COVID-19 and bacterial pneumonia in hospital settings between February 2020 and November 2021, as well as reviewed pre-pandemic influenza patients between February 2018 and November 2019.
Of the 43,375 patients who tested positive for COVID-19, 35,362 were outpatients while 8,013 were hospitalized.
The researchers found that the outpatients who tested positive for COVID-19 had a 3.5-fold increased risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a 2.6-fold increased risk of Parkinson’s, a 2.7 -fold increased risk of ischemic stroke and a 4.8-fold increased risk of intracerebral hemorrhage bleeding in the brain.
But when the researchers compared the relative risk of neurological disorders For other respiratory diseases, such as influenza, the increased risk for most neurological disorders in COVID-19-positive patients was no higher than that in patients diagnosed with other respiratory diseases – with one exception.
Diagnosing brain disease with doctor looking at magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) film diagnosing elderly aging patient with neurodegenerative diseases for neurological medical treatment. However, when the researchers compared the relative risk of neurological disorders to other respiratory diseases, such as the flu, the increased risk of most neurological disorders in COVID-19-positive patients was no higher than in patients diagnosed with other respiratory diseases — with one exception .
(iStock)
The researchers found that the risk of ischemic stroke was increased in COVID-19 hospitalized patients compared to inpatients with influenza.
The study was limited because it did not account for potential confounding variables such as socioeconomic factors, lifestyle, pre-existing comorbidities, and length of hospital stay.
Medical illustration of a brain showing stroke symptoms. The researchers found that the risk of ischemic stroke was increased in COVID-19 hospitalized patients compared to inpatients with influenza.
(iStock)
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Although the study included a large population, it was only able to verify a subset of the country’s absolute number of people tested because only COVID-19 tests performed in the hospital facilities are registered in the Danish electronic health record system, which the study used to analyze the records.
“While the risk of ischemic stroke was increased in COVID-19 compared to influenza, most neurological disorders appear reassuringly no more common after COVID-19 than after influenza or community-acquired bacterial pneumonia,” the researchers concluded.
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“Frequencies of multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Guillain-Barré syndrome and narcolepsy did not differ after COVID-19, influenza and bacterial pneumonia,” the study added.
“These results will help improve our understanding of the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the body and the role that infections play in neurodegenerative diseases and stroke,” said Zarifkar.
