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Review
. 2020 Oct;120(5):1051-1060.
doi: 10.1007/s13760-020-01412-4. Epub 2020 Jul 21.

Neurological manifestations of COVID-19, SARS and MERS

Kato Verstrepen  1   2 , Laure Baisier  1   2 , Harald De Cauwer  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Neurological manifestations of COVID-19, SARS and MERS

Kato Verstrepen et al. Acta Neurol Belg. 2020 Oct.

Erratum in

Abstract

Since December 2019, the world is affected by an outbreak of a new disease named COVID-19, which is an acronym of 'coronavirus disease 2019'. Coronaviruses (CoV) were assumed to be associated with mild upper respiratory tract infections, such as common cold. This perception changed in time due to occurrence of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) caused by SARS-CoV in 2002 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) caused by MERS-CoV in 2012, both inducing an epidemic severe viral pneumonia with potentially respiratory failure and numerous extra-pulmonary manifestations. The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is likewise a causative pathogen for severe viral pneumonia with the risk of progression to respiratory failure and systemic manifestations. In this review, we will give a summary of the neurological manifestations due to SARS and MERS, as those might predict the neurological outcome in the novel COVID-19. Additionally, we provide an overview of the current knowledge concerning neurological manifestations associated with COVID-19, to the extent that literature is already available as the pandemic is still ongoing.

Keywords: COVID-19; MERS; Neurology; Neuropathy; SARS; Stroke.

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Conflict of interest statement

All the authors report no disclosure nor conflict of interest relevant to the manuscript. All authors report no financial disclosure.

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