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Great confusion, loss of bearings or agitation are symptoms which have been observed by several doctors and researchers in patients of Covid-19. They do not yet know whether the damage is lasting in the affected patients. These neurological symptoms should be monitored, as well as cough, fever and shortness of breath.
Would the coronavirus affect the human brain? In any case, this is more and more observed by New York doctors treating patients with Covid-19. In addition to fever, cough and shortness of breath, other symptoms appear: patients experience confusion and are disoriented to the point of not knowing where they are or what year it is.
If this loss of bearings is sometimes linked to the lack of oxygen in the blood, the level of confusion in some patients is such that it seems to be out of proportion to the level of affection of their lungs. Langone University Neurologist in Brooklyn, New York, Jennifer Frontera, in particular questions the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the brain and nervous system, reports The Parisian. She is not the only one to evoke this link.
Studies published on the subject
The phenomenon is already described in specialized scientific journals. Last week, the journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA), echoed a report by doctors on this subject. They reported that 36% of 214 Chinese patients had neurological symptoms: loss of smell, nerve pain, or even seizures and strokes.
That’s not all. French doctors from Strasbourg published in the columns of the New England Journal of Medicine, the most highly rated American medical journal. They describe that more than half of 58 ICU patients were confused or agitated and that brain scans revealed possible inflammations.
Virologists are not totally surprised
According to Andrew Josephson, head of the department of neurology at the University of California San Francisco, the idea that one should only consult if one is out of breath is no longer valid. He instructs patients to come forward when they feel confused or have trouble thinking.
The link between the coronavirus and the nervous system does not completely surprise virologists because it has been observed with other viruses, notably HIV, the AIDS virus. Viruses can affect the brain in two different ways, says Dr. Michel Toledano, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Neurologist first discusses abnormal immune response called “cytokine storm”, causing inflammation of the brain, autoimmune encephalitis, reports West France. He then goes on to discuss the direct infection of the brain known as viral encephalitis. The brain is protected by the blood-brain barrier, the role of which is to block intruding substances, but this protection can be broken through.
The “overheated” immune response
The main track is that of an overheated immune response. However, to prove this, it would be necessary to detect the coronavirus in the cerebrospinal fluid. This was done once, in a 24-year-old Japanese patient, whose case was described inInternational Journal of Infectious Disease. The young man suffered from confusion and convulsions, and imagery of his brain showed inflammation. However, scientists remain cautious because this test has not yet been validated.
The team of Dr. Jennifer Frontera, who teaches at New York University medical school, has reported seizures in Covid-19 patients. They had never done this before contracting the disease. On the other hand, the researchers also observed tiny cerebral hemorrhages which they describe as ” unpublished “
Difficulty in testing
These researchers would like to take cerebrospinal fluid from a patient whose white matter in the brain is severely affected, but this practice is difficult to perform on patients on an artificial respirator.
In addition, the majority of them die, causing difficulties in the study of neurological damage. Those who survive, however, end up consulting neurologists, the daily said.
40% of coronavirus survivors are affected, according to a neurologist
According to Dr. Rohan Arora, a neurologist at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills Hospital, 40% of patients who have recovered from Covid-19 have neurological problems. At this stage, it is not yet known whether these disorders will be lasting.
If the transition to intensive care creates confusion, the neurologist found that the return to normal, for patients recovered from Covid-19, seems to be longer than for those who survived a heart attack or stroke.
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