Revista de Neurología (RN) is published by IMR Press from Volume 79 Issue 11 (2024). Previous articles were published by under the CC-BY-NC-ND licence, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement.
Neurological complications of coronavirus and COVID-19
1 Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, España
2 Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, Reino Unido
*Correspondencia: Francisco Javier Carod Artal, MD. Neurology Department. Raigmore Hospital. Old Perth Road. IV2 3UJ, Inverness, UK.
E-mail: javier.carodartal@nhs.net
Abstract
Introduction: Clinical and experimental studies have shown that the coronavirus family has a certain tropism for the central nervous system. Seven types of coronavirus can infect humans.
Development: Coronaviruses are not always confined to the respiratory tract, and under certain conditions they can invade the central nervous system and cause neurological pathologies. The potential for neuroinvasion is well documented in most human coronaviruses (OC-43, 229E, MERS and SARS) and in some animal coronaviruses (porcine haemagglutinating encephalomyelitis coronavirus). Neurological symptoms have been reported in patients affected by COVID-19, such as headache, dizziness, myalgia and anosmia, as well as cases of encephalopathy, encephalitis, necrotising haemorrhagic encephalopathy, stroke, epileptic seizures, rhabdomyolysis and Guillain-Barre syndrome, associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Conclusions: Future epidemiological studies and case records should elucidate the real incidence of these neurological complications, their pathogenic mechanisms and their therapeutic options.
Keywords
- Coronavirus
- COVID-19
- Encephalitis
- Encephalopathy
- Neurotropism
- SARS-CoV-2
- SARS