Cerebrospinal fluid findings in COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms

Bernhard Neumann; Moritz L Schmidbauer; Konstatinos Dimitriadis; Sören Otto; Benjamin Knier; Wolf-Dirk Niesen; Jonas A Hosp; Albrecht Günther; Sarah Lindemann; Gabor Nagy; Tim Steinberg; Ralf A Linker; Bernhard Hemmer; Julian Bösel; PANDEMIC and the IGNITE study groups

doi:10.1016/j.jns.2020.117090

Cerebrospinal fluid findings in COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms

J Neurol Sci. 2020 Nov 15:418:117090. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2020.117090. Epub 2020 Aug 11.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, University of Regensburg, Bezirksklinikum, Regensburg, Germany. Electronic address: bernhard.neumann@medbo.de.
² Department of Neurology, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany. Electronic address: moritz.schmidbauer@med.uni-muenchen.de.
³ Department of Neurology, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany; Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (ISD), Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany. Electronic address: konstantin.dimitriadis@med.uni-muenchen.de.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany. Electronic address: Soeren.otto@med.uni-muenchen.de.
⁵ Department of Neurology, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich Germany, Germany. Electronic address: benjamin.knier@tum.de.
⁶ Department of Neurology and Neurophysiology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: wolf-dirk.niesen@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
⁷ Department of Neurology and Neurophysiology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address: jonas.hosp@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
⁸ Hans-Berger-Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany. Electronic address: Albecht.guenther@med.uni-jena.de.
⁹ Department of Neurology, SRH Wald-Klinikum Gera GmbH, Gera, Germany. Electronic address: Sarah.Lindemann@srh.de.
¹⁰ Department of Neurology, Klinikum Kassel, Kassel, Germany. Electronic address: gabor.nagy@klinikum-kassel.de.
¹¹ Department of Neurology, University of Regensburg, Bezirksklinikum, Regensburg, Germany. Electronic address: tim.steinberg@medbo.de.
¹² Department of Neurology, University of Regensburg, Bezirksklinikum, Regensburg, Germany. Electronic address: ralf.linker@medbo.de.
¹³ Department of Neurology, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich Germany, Germany; Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany. Electronic address: hemmer@tum.de.
¹⁴ Department of Neurology, Klinikum Kassel, Kassel, Germany. Electronic address: Julian.Boesel@klinikum-kassel.de.

Abstract

•
Largest cohort of patients with COVID-19 and neurological symptoms who underwent LP.
•
In all 30 cases, RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 from CSF was negative.
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CSF analysis findings, including WBC, were normal in most patients with COVID-19.
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Neurological symptoms in COVID-19 seem to be caused mainly by indirect mechanism.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cerebrospinal fluid; Neurological symptoms; SARS-CoV-2.

Publication types

Letter
Observational Study

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
COVID-19 / cerebrospinal fluid*
COVID-19 / complications
COVID-19 / virology*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Nervous System Diseases / cerebrospinal fluid*
Nervous System Diseases / complications
Nervous System Diseases / diagnosis
Nervous System Diseases / virology*
Pandemics
Polymerase Chain Reaction
RNA, Viral / cerebrospinal fluid
SARS-CoV-2 / genetics
SARS-CoV-2 / isolation & purification

Substances

RNA, Viral