Neurological involvement of coronavirus disease 2019: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Background In December 2019, unexplained cases of pneumonia emerged in Wuhan, China, which were found to be secondary to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-2019) outbreak, a pandemic. Objective To clarify the neurological complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection including the potential mechanisms and therapeutic options. Methods We conducted a systematic literature search from December 01, 2019 to May 14, 2020 using multiple combinations of keywords from PubMed and Ovid Medline databases according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We included articles with cases of COVID-19 where neurological involvement was evident. Results We were able to identify 82 cases of COVID-19 with neurological complications. The mean age was 62.3 years. 37.8% of the patients were women (n = 31). 48.8% of the patients (n = 40) had cerebrovascular insults, 28% (n = 23) had neuromuscular disorders, and 23% of the patients (n = 19) had encephalitis or encephalopathy. Conclusions Neurological manifestations of COVID-19 are not rare, especially large vessel stroke, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and meningoencephalitis. Moving forward, further studies are needed to clarify the prevalence of the neurological complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection, investigate their biological backgrounds, and test treatment options. Physicians should be cautious not to overlook other neurological diagnoses that can mimic COVID-19 during the pandemic.
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Viral infections such as Zika and SARS-CoV-2 have been associated with neurologic syndromes that include dysautonomia and GI complaints in some patients.
“Viral infections such as Zika and SARS-CoV-2 have also been associated with neurologic syndromes that include dysautonomia and GI complaints in some patients (Counotte et al., 2019; Ghannam et al., 2020).”
From Autonomic nervous system and gastrointestinal manifestations with an emphasis on gastric dysfunction (2026) · cites this paper as Ghannam et al., 2020
The Results (page not available) report neurological syndromes in patients with COVID-19 and say that GI symptoms preceded the syndrome in two patients. The review does not identify dysautonomia among those syndromes, and it describes GI symptoms as preceding—not forming part of—the neurological syndrome. The Zika portion has a separate citation and is not judged against this source. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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- Authors
- Ghannam, M., Alshaer, Q., Al-Chalabi, M., Zakarna, L., Robertson, J., & Manousakis, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Emory University (US)
- University of Toledo (US)
- An-Najah National University (PS)
- Corresponding author
- Ghannam, Malik
- Manousakis, Georgios
- Venue
- Journal of Neurology
- Published
- 2020-06-19
- Volume
- 267
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 3135-3153
- ISSN
- 0012-1037 (ISSN-L)
- 0340-5354
- 1432-1459
- PMC
- PMC7304377
- OpenAlex
- W3035936306
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 105
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 26
- FWCI
- 3.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Neurology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Infectious Encephalopathies and Encephalitis
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, neurological complications, cerebrovascular disease, stroke, Guillain-Barré syndrome, neuromuscular disorders, encephalitis, meningoencephalitis, encephalopathy, pathophysiological mechanisms, treatment options
- MeSH terms
- Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adult, Aged, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nervous System Diseases, Pneumonia, Viral, Prevalence, Coronavirus Infections, Pandemics
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