FEATURES OF THE COURSE OF ISCHEMIC STROKE IN CORONAVIRUS INFECTION

Abstract

Abstract: The aim of the study was to characterize and compare patients with ischemic stroke associated with COVID-19 and not associated with COVID-19. We analyzed 209 cases of hemispheric ischemic stroke (IS). The patients were divided into two groups. The main group consisted of 83 patients with hemispheric IS and laboratory-confirmed SARSCoV-2 coronavirus infection. The average time from the onset of IS to laboratory confirmation of COVID-19 was 5.7 days. The control group consisted of 126 patients with hemispheric IS who did not have a history of COVID-19. When analyzing stroke subtypes by groups, it was found that patients with unspecified 51.4% and cardioembolic subtypes - 29.2%, respectively, prevailed in the main group. Atherothrombotic and lacunar subtypes of ischemic stroke in the main group were confirmed in 12.5% and 6.9%, respectively. In the control
group, the distribution of patients with variants of stroke subtypes differed and was as follows: the proportion of cases of atherothrombotic stroke - 75.0%, cardioembolic - 16.3%, unspecified subtype - 6.8%. Lacunar variants in the control group amounted to 1.9%. When IS occurs in patients caused by COVID-19 infection, age and gender characteristics have not been established, and the clinical features of the course of stroke on the background of COVID-19 are characterized by the predominance of ischemic manifestations in unspecified and cardioembolic stroke subtypes.
Keywords: ischemic stroke, coronavirus infection, COVID-19, acute respiratory distress syndrome, SARS-CoV-2.