Clinical course of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with severe acquired brain injury and a disorder of consciousness: an observational study.
Antonio CaronniEmanuele LiaciAnna BianchiAlessandro ViganòFrancesco MarencoAngela ComanducciDaniela Maria CabriniMario MeloniMargherita AlberoniElisabetta FarinaMariangela BiancoSilvia GaleriGuya DevalleJorge NavarroPublished in: Brain injury (2021)
Purpose: SARS-CoV-2 infection can cause the coronavirus disease (COVID), ranging from flu-like symptoms to interstitial pneumonia. Mortality is high in COVID pneumonia and it is the highest among the frailest. COVID could be particularly serious in patients with severe acquired brain injury (SABI), such as those with a disorder of consciousness. We here describe a cohort of patients with a disorder of consciousness exposed to SARS-CoV-2 early after their SABI.Materials and methods: The full cohort of 11 patients with SABI hospitalized in March 2020 in the IRCCS Fondazione Don Gnocchi rehabilitation (Milan, Italy) was recruited. Participants received SARS-CoV-2 testing and different clinical and laboratory data were collected.Results: Six patients contracted SARS-CoV-2 and four of them developed the COVID. Of these, one patient had ground-glass opacities on the chest CT scan, while the remaining three developed consolidations. No patient died and the overall respiratory involvement was mild, requiring in the worst cases low-flow oxygen.Conclusions: Here we report the clinical course of a cohort of patients with SABI exposed to SARS-CoV-2. The infection spread among patients and caused COVID in some of them. Unexpectedly, COVID was moderate, caused at most mild respiratory distress and did not result in fatalities.
Keyphrases
- sars cov
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- coronavirus disease
- brain injury
- subarachnoid hemorrhage
- computed tomography
- end stage renal disease
- case report
- cerebral ischemia
- chronic kidney disease
- machine learning
- magnetic resonance
- magnetic resonance imaging
- early onset
- risk factors
- intensive care unit
- cardiovascular events
- high intensity
- artificial intelligence
- mechanical ventilation
- image quality
- positron emission tomography
- patient reported