According to CNN Health's latest report, the novel coronavirus can cause sudden strokes in adults. Doctors reported on Wednesday, April 22, that COVID-19 appears to be targeting 30- to 40-year-old adults causing sudden strokes, even in those who are not ill.
The report clarified that the infected individuals showing signs of a stroke are unwilling to call 911 because of the news that hospitals are overwhelmed by the novel coronavirus. The research showed strong evidence that COVID-19 infections cause blood clots in an abnormal way which, in turn, causes severe strokes in its victims.
COVID-19 causes sudden strokes in 30- to 40-year-old adults, doctors say; Should you be worried?
According to CNN Health, Dr. Thomas Oxley, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, gave details of the five people they treated. The report said that all the patients are below 50 years old and all of them had mild symptoms caused by the COVID-19 infection or had no health complications at all.
"The virus seems to be causing increased clotting in the large arteries, leading to severe stroke," Dr. Oxley said in CNN's report.
"Our report shows a seven-fold increase in the incidence of sudden stroke in young patients during the past two weeks. Most of these patients have no past medical history and were at home with either mild symptoms (or in two cases, no symptoms) of COVID," he added.
Dr. Oxley reiterated that all of the patients were tested positive of COVID-19. According to other doctors, they have received reports that people are avoiding to call 911 or go to emergency health facilities because of the ongoing pandemic. It is not unusual for young adults to have a stroke, especially in the large vessels in their brain.
The doctor's report will be published by the New England Journal of Medicine which states that 0.73 patients under the age of 50 years have been diagnosed with a large vessel stroke every 2 weeks for the past 12 months.
According to a previous report of CNN, there are three major reasons why COVID-19 patients are at high risk of having a stroke or blood clot: One of them is patients who are infected by COVID-19 already have underlying medical conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
The second one is the cytokine storm that causes the body's immune system response to turn against itself. And the third reason will be the evolution of the coronavirus that abnormally causes the blood clots.
Dr. Behnood Bikdeli, one of the experts who coordinated with the international coalition of physicians, reiterated that this is an alarming medical phenomenon.
