Washington: Healthy young people may have an increased risk of stroke if they are infected with the novel coronavirus. This may happen if young people are not showing any symptoms of the disease. This has recently been revealed by a small observational study.
The researchers at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) in the US, and colleagues analysed COVID-19 patients who suffered stroke. The patients were taken in the timeframe March 20 till April 10.
The strokes they observed were unlike what they usually see, according to the study published Thursday in the journal ‘Neurosurgery’.
“We were seeing patients in their 30s, 40s and 50s with massive strokes. It is the kind of strokes we typically see in patients in their 70s and 80s,” said Pascal Jabbour from TJU.
The study examined and characterised strokes in patients who tested positive for COVID-19. This was done in collaboration with surgeons from ‘NYU Langone Medical Centre’ in New York.
“We have to stress that our observations are preliminary. They are based on observations from 14 patients. However, what we have observed is worrying,” said Jabbour. “Young people, who may not know they have the coronavirus, are developing clots that cause major stroke,” he added.
The researchers examined 14 patients who had come into their neuro-interventional room for treatment of stroke. Eight patients were male, and six were female. Fifty per cent did not know they had coronavirus. The remainder was already being treated for other symptoms of the disease when they developed stroke.
Previous studies have shown that the coronavirus enters human cells via a very specific access point. It is a protein on human cells called ACE2, the researchers noted. The coronavirus latches onto this protein and uses it as a gateway into the cell. There the virus starts replicating, they said.
Jabbour and colleagues speculate that the virus may be interfering with this receptor’s normal function, which controls blood flow in the brain. It then leads to a stroke.
Another possibility, the researchers said, is that the inflammation of the blood vessels causing vasculitis with injury to the cells lining the lumen of the vessel, called endothelium and causing micro thrombosis in small vessels.
