One doctor called the link between coronavirus and stroke “one of the clearest and most profound correlations I’ve come across.”
By Josh Plank, World Israel News
Several hospitals have released new data suggesting that seemingly mild coronavirus infection in young people may result in serious stroke and even death.
“Our report shows a seven-fold increase in incidence of sudden stroke in young patients during the past two weeks. Most of these patients have no past medical history and were at home with either mild symptoms (or in two cases, no symptoms) of covid,” Dr. Thomas Oxley, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, told CNN on Thursday.
“The virus seems to be causing increased clotting in the large arteries, leading to severe stroke,” he said.
The findings of Oxley and his colleagues are to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week, according to The Washington Post.
The report details five coronavirus patients, age 33 to 49, with mild to no symptoms who had strokes at home from March 23 to April 7.
Of the five patients, one died, two are still hospitalized, and two were released to rehabilitation or home care. Only the 33-year-old is now able to speak.
Oxley said many of the victims waited surprisingly long before seeking emergency care. “The message we are trying to get out is if you have symptoms of stroke, you need to call the ambulance urgently,” he said.
Mount Sinai’s Dr. J Mocco said the number of patients coming in with large blood blockages in their brains doubled during New York’s coronavirus outbreak, with more than half of the victims testing positive for the virus.
Stroke patients with coronavirus were an average of 15 years younger than those without the virus. “These are people among the least likely statistically to have a stroke,” Mocco said.
Mocco said he was “completely shocked,” calling the link between coronavirus and stroke “one of the clearest and most profound correlations I’ve come across.”
“This is much too powerful of a signal to be chance or happenstance,” he said.
Doctors at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia and NYU Langone Health in New York City are also preparing to publish a report on their findings concerning the link between coronavirus and stroke.
The hospitals had 12 coronavirus patients who suffered large blood blockages in their brains during a three-week period. The patients had few or no risk factors, and 40 percent were under age 50.
“We are used to thinking of 60 as a young patient,” Dr. Eytan Raz of NYU Langone said concerning the severe types of stroke. “We have never seen so many in their 50s, 40s, and late 30s.”