Covid-19 causes more brain problems than previously thought – even mild infections can cause stroke, swelling and nerve damage
- Complications in the brain and nervous system from Covid-19 are more common than was initially understood, according to a new study
- The virus doesn’t appear to directly attack the brain, but can still cause serious complications even in mild cases
Potentially fatal Covid-19 complications in the brain including stroke, delirium and nerve damage may be more common than initially thought, a team of British-based doctors warned last week.
Severe Covid-19 infections are known to put patients at risk of neurological complications, but research led by University College London suggests serious problems can occur even in individuals with mild virus cases.
Most of those patients with inflammation were diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) – a rare autoimmune condition typically seen in children after viral infections.
“We identified a higher than expected number of people with neurological conditions such as brain inflammation, which did not always correlate with the severity of respiratory symptoms,” said Michael Zandi, of UCL’s Queen Square Institute of Neurology and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The research, published in the journal Brain, showed that none of patients diagnosed with neurological problems had Covid-19 in their cerebrospinal fluid, suggesting that the virus did not directly attack their brains.