COVID-19 Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 23 pp 23450—23463

Incidence of cerebrovascular disease as a comorbidity in patients with COVID-19: a meta-analysis

Jun Zhang1,2,3, *, , Haili Wang1,4, *, , Min Wei2,3, *, , Hengzhu Zhang2,3, , Boming Xia5, , Xingdong Wang2,3, , Yunlong Pei1, , Lun Dong2,3, , Yuping Li2,3, ,

  • 1 Department of Clinical Medicine, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, Liaoning, China
  • 2 Department of Neurosurgery, Clinical Medical College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225001, Jiangsu, China
  • 3 Department of Neuro Intensive Care Unit, Clinical Medical College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225001, Jiangsu, China
  • 4 Department of Neurology, Clinical Medical College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225001, Jiangsu, China
  • 5 Department of Emergency Medicine, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang, China
* Equal contribution

Received: May 16, 2020       Accepted: August 29, 2020       Published: November 23, 2020      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.104086
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2020 Zhang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

It is essential to know whether COVID-19 patients have a history of cerebrovascular disease, as it may be predictive of prognosis and useful for allocation of limited medical resources. This meta-analysis was performed to assess the incidence of cerebrovascular disease as a comorbidity in COVID-19 patients. The PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CNKI, WFSD, and VIP databases were systematically searched. The pooled analysis of relevant data was conducted using RevMan 5.3 software. The primary outcome was incidence of cerebrovascular disease as a comorbidity. Forty-seven studies involving 16,143 COVID-19 patients were included in this analysis. The incidences of a history of cerebrovascular disease and hypertension in COVID-19 patients were estimated to be 3.0% (95% CI, 2.0%-4.0%; P<0.00001) and 23.0% (95% CI, 16.0%-29.0%; P<0.00001), respectively. The incidence of dizziness/headache as the first symptom in COVID-19 patients was estimated to be 14.0% (95% CI, 8.0%-20.0%; P<0.00001). Subgroup analyses indicated that country, sex ratio, and sample size are potential influencing factors affecting the incidences of cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, and dizziness/headache. These findings suggest that cerebrovascular disease is an underlying comorbidity among patients with COVID-19. In addition, patients experiencing dizziness/headache as the first symptom of COVID-19 should receive a neurological examination.

Abbreviations

SE: Standard error; CIs: Confidence interval(s); I2: I-square; RD: Ratio difference; ACE2: Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2; SARS-CoV-2: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2.