The objective of this retrospective cohort study, recently published in the European Journal of Neurology, was to assess the neurological manifestations in a series of consecutive SARS‐CoV‐2 positive patients, comparing their frequency with a population hospitalised in the same period for influenza/respiratory symptoms, found not to be related to SARS‐CoV‐2.
The authors retrospectively enrolled patients with flu‐like respiratory symptoms admitted to Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli Hospital from March, 14th 2020 to April, 20th 2020. The frequency of neurological manifestations in patients with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection were compared with the control group. 213 patients tested positive for SARS‐CoV‐2 on real‐time PCR on nasal or throat swabs, while 218 patients were negative, and were assigned as the control group. Regarding central nervous system manifestations, the authors observed that SARS‐CoV‐2 positive patients exhibited a higher frequency of headache, hyposmia, and encephalopathy, which they related to systemic fever or hypoxia. Furthermore, muscular involvement was more frequent in SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. They concluded that patients with COVID‐19 commonly have neurologic manifestations but only hyposmia and muscle involvement seem more frequent compared with other flu-like diseases.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ene.14444