Spectrum, risk factors and outcomes of neurological and psychiatric complications of COVID-19: a UK-wide cross-sectional surveillance study.

SARS-CoV-2 is associated with new-onset neurological and psychiatric conditions. Detailed clinical data, including factors associated with recovery, are lacking, hampering prediction modelling and targeted therapeutic interventions. In a UK-wide cross-sectional surveillance study of adult hospitalized patients during the first COVID-19 wave, with multi-professional input from general and sub-specialty neurologists, psychiatrists, stroke physicians, and intensivists, we captured detailed data on demographics, risk factors, pre-COVID-19 Rockwood frailty score, comorbidities, neurological presentation and outcome. A priori clinical case definitions were used, with cross-specialty independent adjudication for discrepant cases. Multivariable logistic regression was performed using demographic and clinical variables, to determine the factors associated with outcome. A total of 267 cases were included. Cerebrovascular events were most frequently reported (131, 49%), followed by other central disorders (95, 36%) including delirium (28, 11%), central inflammatory (25, 9%), psychiatric (25, 9%), and other encephalopathies (17, 7%), including a severe encephalopathy (n = 13) not meeting delirium criteria; and peripheral nerve disorders (41, 15%). Those with the severe encephalopathy, in comparison to delirium, were younger, had higher rates of admission to intensive care and a longer duration of ventilation. Compared to normative data during the equivalent time period prior to the pandemic, cases of stroke in association with COVID-19 were younger and had a greater number of conventional, modifiable cerebrovascular risk factors. Twenty-seven per cent of strokes occurred in patients <60 years. Relative to those >60 years old, the younger stroke patients presented with delayed onset from respiratory symptoms, higher rates of multi-vessel occlusion (31%) and systemic thrombotic events. Clinical outcomes varied between disease groups, with cerebrovascular disease conferring the worst prognosis, but this effect was less marked than the pre-morbid factors of older age and a higher pre-COVID-19 frailty score, and a high admission white cell count, which were independently associated with a poor outcome. In summary, this study describes the spectrum of neurological and psychiatric conditions associated with COVID-19. In addition, we identify a severe COVID-19 encephalopathy atypical for delirium, and a phenotype of COVID-19 associated stroke in younger adults with a tendency for multiple infarcts and systemic thromboses. These clinical data will be useful to inform mechanistic studies and stratification of patients in clinical trials.

MRI assessment of basal ganglia iron deposition in Parkinson's disease.

PURPOSE: To estimate the levels of basal ganglia iron levels in Parkinson's disease (PD) using the PRIME MR sequence at 3.0 Tesla, in relation to patients' motor symptom severity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy patients with PD and 10 healthy controls underwent assessment of movement and MR imaging. Mean R2' relaxation rates were recorded in the substantia nigra, frontal white matter and in the rostral, mid, and caudal putamen. RESULTS: R2' relaxation rates were significantly higher in patients with PD than in healthy controls. R2' in the most affected substantia nigra correlated with PD patients' motor symptom severity, but not with disease duration. Neuroradiological observation revealed a rostral to caudal "gradient" of putaminal hypointensity. This was substantiated by the finding that the mid and caudal putamen showed significantly higher R2' relaxation rates, consistent with higher iron levels in PD relative to the healthy controls. CONCLUSION: MRI at 3.0 Tesla suggests that substantia nigra iron levels are increased and linked to the severity of motor symptoms experienced in PD. Findings consistent with increased iron levels in the PD putamen are shown, in a region-specific rostral to caudal gradient.

Renal calculus at presentation in a child with Crohn's disease.

Genitourinary complications are relatively common in inflammatory bowel disease, with a reported incidence of 4-23%, although they more frequently occur in established disease. We present the case of a 12-year-old boy, already under investigation for short stature, who only developed florid symptoms of colitis after removal of a large staghorn calculus. In all cases of childhood nephrolithiasis, the possibility of underlying inflammatory bowel disease needs to be considered.