Neurological Manifestations in Egyptian Covid-19 Patients

Abstract

Background and aim: The current Covid-19 pandemic massively overwhelmed the health scene in almost all world countries including Egypt. Neurological manifestations are commonly reported among Covid-19 patients. The aim of the present study is to describe the neurological manifestations in a group of Egyptian patients diagnosed with Covid-19. Patients and methods: The present retrospective study was conducted at Al-Azhar University Hospitals. Patients included in the study comprised 50 patients with variable new-onset neurological manifestations in addition to other 50 patients without neurological manifestations recruited from other departments. All participants were subjected to careful history taking, thorough clinical examination and routine laboratory investigations. Patients with neurological manifestations were in addition submitted to computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as appropriate. The primary outcome of the present study is patients’ in-hospital mortality. Results: Comparison between both groups shows that patients with neurological affection are significantly older (54.7 ± 12.8 versus 44.2 ± 18.8 years, p=0.002) with significantly higher BMI (32.4 ± 7.8 versus 26.3 ± 6.5 kg/m^2, p < 0.001). The reported neurological manifestations included headache (78.0 %) taste and smell impairment (74.0 %), myalgia (62.0 %) and dizziness (58.0 %). It was also shown that 30 patients (60.0 %) died among patients with neurological affection while in patients without neurological affection only 13 patients (26.0 %) died (p=0.001). Neurological manifestations are independent predictor of mortality [OR (95% CI): 0.35 (0.14-0.88), p=0.025]. Conclusions: Our study confirmed the presence of a significant association between neurological manifestations and poor outcome in Covid-19 patients.