American Heart Association News: Doctors Consider Possible Stroke and COVID-19 Connection
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Doctors are anecdotally reporting a surprising number of severe strokes in patients with COVID-19, but the possible links between stroke and COVID-19 aren't clear at this time.
Doctors Consider Possible Stroke and COVID-19 Connection
TUESDAY, May 12, 2020 (American Heart Association News) --The first thing to know about the possible links between COVID-19 and stroke is simple, say doctors: We just don't know.
"We have very serious worries that there's a connection," said Dr. Patrick D. Lyden, professor of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "But I want to make it crystal clear that if we stay focused on evidence and data – which we really need to do more of at this moment – we don't know anything with probability."
Lyden, who wrote American Heart Association guidance for stroke centers about how to handle the coronavirus for its journal Stroke, said doctors anecdotally were reporting "a surprising number of very severe strokes at this time" in COVID-19 patients.