Stroke patients with COVID-19 have high inflammation, death rate: Study

Stroke patients who also have Covid19 showed increased systemic inflammation more serious stroke severity and a much higher rate of death compared to stroke patients without coronavirus warn researchersStroke patients who also have Covid19 showed increased systemic inflammation more serious stroke severity and a much higher rate of death compared to stroke patients without coronavirus warn researchersCovid_19 pictwittercomCyRrbQmCTsmdash IANS Tweets ians_india September 22 2020The study published in the journal Brain Behavior amp Immunity Health is a retrospective observational crosssectional study of 60 ischemic stroke patients admitted to the University of Alabama at Birmingham UAB Hospital between late March and early May 2020Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel for the brain is blocked by a clot depriving some brain tissue of oxygen All patients were tested for Covid19 at admissionThe ratio of the number of neutrophils to the number of lymphocytes or the NLR as calculated from blood count data served as an index of the systemic inflammatory response said study author Chen Lin from UAB in the USWhile other researchers have associated NLR with Covid19 disease severity refractory disease and even as an independent factor for mortality our study is the first to associate the NLR in patients with Covid19 and ischemic stroke and stroke severity Lin addedOf the 60 hospitalised patients with acute systemic stroke nine were positive for a COVID19 infectionThe research had four major findings First patients who were positive for Covid19 presented a more severe neurological deficit at admission as measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale or NIHSS score which averaged 184Second all patients with an NIHSS score higher than four including uninfected patients had a significantly higher NLR than those with lower scores The NIHSS is used to predict lesion size and gauge stroke severityThird patients with Covid19 had an increased inflammatory response including significantly higher neutrophil counts lower lymphocyte counts and an increased NLR compared with uninfected patientsFinally stroke patients with Covid19 had a significantly higher mortality rate 444 per cent versus 76 per cent for uninfected stroke patientsInterestingly in our patients with stroke and Covid19 the neutrophil and lymphocyte levels were only borderline high and low respectively yet the NLR was almost twice as high as in patients without Covid19 Lin saidThis potentially indicates that the systemic inflammatory response triggered by Covid19 can cascade from multiple components Lin notedKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever