Ischemic stroke as a presenting feature of COVID-19: a series of three cases from Qatar
Most cases of stroke associated with coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19) occur during the course of characteristic COVID-19 respiratory disease. We report 3 patients whose presenting feature of COVID-19 was stroke. Two patients did not have respiratory symptoms throughout their clinical course. In all cases, COVID-19 was confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing and diagnosis of ischemic stroke by brain imaging. The patients were relatively young (40, 45, 50 years old). None of them had a history of cerebrovascular events. Risk factors for stroke were absent in one patient and limited to being overweight and smoking in another, but were more pronounced in a third. two patients had large vessel occlusions and elevated D-dimer levels. two patients had multiple infarcts. one patient had a large vessel occlusion and elevated D-dimer levels.
Yousaf Iqbal, Peter M Haddad, Javed Latoo, Mohammed Ibrahim Alhatou, Majid Alabdulla, Ischemic stroke as a presenting feature of COVID-19: a series of three cases from Qatar, Oxford Medical Case Reports, Volume 2021, Issue 3, March 2021 omab006, https: //doi.org/10.1093/omcr/omab006
Commentary
The symptoms of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 often show respiratory symptoms, and it has been reported that other organs and other systems are also affected. A study in New York reported that 0.9% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had radiologically proven ischemic strokes. This study reported that the median age of stroke patients was 62.5 years and the median time from onset of the first COVID-19 symptom to stroke was 10 days.Three cases with these characteristics were reported, and the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes were described.
