Dados do Trabalho

Título

Changes in Cerebrospinal Fluid from COVID-19

Resumo

INTRODUCTION
The new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) appeared in Wuhan, China, and quickly evolved into a pandemic. There have been reports of neurological manifestations associated with COVID-19. These manifestations include mild symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, hypogeusia and hyposmia; and severe manifestations, such as encephalitis, encephalopathy, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and stroke. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis is essential in making diagnoses of infections of the central nervous system (CNS), once it can provide information about the inflammatory response and can identify the etiological agent. The aim of this study is to assess the profile of patients with suspected and confirmed COVID-19 for and verify the cytobiochemical changes in CSF.
METHODS
It is a cross-sectional, retrospective and multicenter study. Patients who were selected had suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Lumbar punctures were performed from May 2020 to April 2021 at the following locations: Hospital Português, Hospital Esperança Recife, Hospital da Unimed, Hospital Memorial São José, Hospital Santa Joana Recife and Hospital Esperança Olinda. All punctures were requested by the attending physician to assess neurological disease. The CSF samples were analyzed at the Fernando Travassos Laboratory. Data collection is being carried out in the medical records. The research project for the master's degree was accepted by the UFPE ethics committee.
RESULTS
The total number of patients was 116. Men represented 55.17% of the sample. The mean age was 49,874 years, which ranged from 10 days to 95 years. The main reasons for requesting the CSF analysis were: headache (32.4%), encephalitis (25.9%) and lowered level of consciousness (17.65%). During the procedure, 61.7% patients were alert and 32.2% were in a coma. Almost all collections were performed in the lumbar/lying position, except for 1 patient who was seated and another patient who sent the sample. The mean initial pressure was 19.9 cmH20. The average global white cell count was 34.38 mm³, in only 3 patients there was the presence of neutrophils. The mean total protein was 72.4 mg/dL. and in only 1 patient had glucose consumed.
CONCLUSION
Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid is important to understand how SARS-CoV-2 acts on the nervous system.