The researchers reported that in patients younger than 50, nearly 50 percent had no other visible symptoms of the virus at the time of stroke onset. They also found that the interplay of older age, other chronic conditions and the severity of COVID-19 respiratory symptoms are associated with an extremely elevated risk of death.
"One of the most eye-opening findings of this study is that for patients under 50 years old, many were totally asymptomatic when they had a stroke related to COVID-19. This means that for these patients, the stroke was their first symptom of the disease," said Sposato, professor and the Kathleen and Dr. Henry Barnett Chair in Stroke Research at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, and scientist at Lawson.
Sposato said understanding the interplay between COVID-19 and stroke is important for treatment planning, especially in areas where COVID-19 is actively circulating in the community.
"The take-home message here for health care providers is that if you are seeing a patient with a stroke, particularly in those under 50 years old with large clots, you need to think of COVID-19 as a potential cause even in the absence of respiratory symptoms," said Dr. Sposato.
