Strokes in COVID-19 are rare but are more severe, occur in younger patients, and have higher mortality rate. Digest

During the study period of March 15 through April 19, 2020, out of 3,556 hospitalized patients with diagnosis of COVID-19 infection, 32 patients (0.9%) had imaging-proven ischemic stroke. They compared those 32 patients admitted with stroke and COVID-19 to those admitted only with stroke (46 patients) and found that the patients with COVID-19:

tended to be younger, average age of 63 years vs. 70 years for non-COVID stroke patients; had more severe strokes, average score of 19 vs. 8 on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; had higher D-dimer levels, 10,000 vs. 525, which can indicate significant blood clotting; were more likely to be treated with blood thinners, 75% vs. 23.9%; were more likely to have a cryptogenic stroke in which the cause is unknown, 65.6% vs. 30.4%; and were more likely to be dead at hospital discharge, 63.6% vs. 9.3%. Conversely, COVID-19 stroke patients were less likely than those stroke patients without the novel coronavirus to have high blood pressure (56.3% vs. 76.1%) or to have a prior history of stroke (3.1% vs. 13%).