Dados do Trabalho

Título

COVID-19 Neurological Manifestations in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease treated in a tertiary hospital in Ceará.

Resumo

Introduction: COVID-19 has been frequently associated with a wide range of neurological
disorders. However, it is unknown whether COVID-19 exacerbates neurological symptoms in
patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Objective: To identify possible worsening of gastrointestinal and neurological manifestations
in patients with IBD due to COVID-19 infection.

Methodology: Research was carried out in 146 patients from the gastroenterology outpatient
clinic, from June 2020 to June 2022, in a tertiary hospital in Ceará. Evaluation was
conducted in person or by phone and addressed, among other aspects, whether the patient
was infected by COVID-19, if there was worsening of IBD symptoms and if there was
neurological manifestation.

Results: Among 146 patients interviewed during a 2 year period (28 in 2020; 36 in 2021; 82
in 2022), 78 had Crohn's disease and 68 had ulcerative colitis. Of this total, 36 patients
reported COVID-19 infection with positive test confirmation, comprising about 24% of the
sample, with 16.6% of the patients responding that there was a worsening of IBD symptoms
during COVID. Regarding neurological symptoms, 72.2% of patients reported headache
during COVID infection. In comparison, among patients who didn’t have COVID with positive
test confirmation, about 57% of patients reported headache.Other neurological symptoms
reported by patients affected by COVID were anosmia (47.2%), ageusia (47.2%), tingling
(22.2%), numbness (19.4%) and disorientation (5.5%). Surprisingly, no patient reported
syncopal spell during COVID-19 infection.

Conclusion: The results indicate that 83.3 % of patients who claim to have COVID had at
least one of the aforementioned neurological symptoms. Furthermore, the prevalence of
neurological manifestations of these patients with IBD during SARS-COV-2 infection is in
line with the literature. In this sense, it is relevant to point out that the percentage of patients
with headache was higher in the group of patients with COVID than in the uninfected group.
Finally, the patients with GI worsening also had neurological exacerbation.

Palavras Chave

Neurological Manifestations, COVID-19, Inflammatory Bowel Disease