Imaging of Neurologic Disease in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: An Italian Multicenter Retrospective Observational Study

Abstract

Of 725 consecutive hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019, 108 (15%) had acute neurologic symptoms necessitating neurologic imaging.

Figure 1:

Study flowchart. COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019, CTA = CT angiography, MRA = MR angiography, MS = multiple sclerosis, PRES = posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, RT-PCR = real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.

Figure 2:

Images of acute encephalopathy in a 60-year-old-man without history of seizures who presented with convulsion. A, B, Fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery images show multifocal areas of hyperintensity in the right cerebellum (arrow in A), left anterior cingular cortex, and superior frontal gyrus (arrows in B). C–E, Diffusion-weighted images show restricted diffusion in the left anterior cingulate cortex and superior frontal gyrus (arrows in C), superior frontal and middle temporal gyrus (arrows in D), and right cerebellum (arrows in E), consistent with cerebellar diaschisis. F, MRI scan obtained with gradient-echo sequence shows no hemosiderin deposits.