The neurological manifestations of covid-19 and their relationship with the disease severity in hospitalized patients: A single-centered, cross-sectional study on patients with co…

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan city, China in December 2019 and rapidly spread as a global health pandemic. The primary presentation is respiratory and cardiac symptoms, but neurological features are also being reported. A single-centered, cross-sectional study on 168 patients with COVID-19 was conducted in Al-Mawani teaching hospital, Basra, Iraq to assess the neurological manifestations of COVID-19 and their relationship with the disease severity. 60.7% of the patients involved in the study were documented to have neurological manifestations. The most common reported symptom is the headache (39%) followed by the dizziness(lightheadedness) (28.6%). The more severe neurological manifestations as the acute confusion, cranial nerve palsies, hemiplegia are more seen among those with sever desaturation, higher lung involvement as well as those with cytokine storm syndrome and mainly distributed among older age, males and in patients with comorbidities.The acute cerebrovascular accident(stroke)present in 14.3% of patient, mainly in whom are complain from sever desaturation and aggressive lung involvement.