Implication of COVID-19 on neurological complications with specific emphasis on alzheimer’s and parkinson’s disease

Author(s):  
Ankita Sood ◽  
Ravi Goyal ◽  
Harshdeep Singh ◽  
Tapan Behl ◽  
Sandeep Arora ◽  
...  

: It is noticeable how the novel coronavirus has spread from the Wuhan region of China to the whole world, devastating the lives of people worldwide. All the data related to the precautionary measures, diagnosis, treatment, and even the epidemiological data are being made freely accessible and reachable in a very little time as well as being rapidly published to save humankind from this pandemic. There might be neurological complications of COVID-19 and patients suffering from neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease might have repercussions as a result of the pandemic. In this review article, we have discussed the effect of SARS-CoV-2 viral infection on the people affected with neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. It primarily emphasizes two issues, i.e., vulnerability to infection and modifications of course of the disease concerning the clinical neurological manifestations, the advancement of the disease and novel approaches to support health care professionals in disease management, the susceptibility to these diseases, and impact on the severity of disease and management.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ranajoy Mallik ◽  
Amlan Protim Hazarika ◽  
Sudarshana Ghosh ◽  
Dilip Sing ◽  
Rajib Bandyopadhyay

Abstract The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19 as pandemic across the world. With its alarming surge of affected cases throughout the world, lockdown and awareness (social distancing, use of masks etc) among people are found to be the only means for restricting the community transmission. In a densely populated country like India, it is very difficult to prevent the community transmission even during lockdown without social awareness and precautionary measures taken by the people. Recently, several containment zones had been identified throughout the country and divided into red, orange and green zones, respectively. The red zones indicate the infection hotspots, orange zones denote some infection and green zones indicate an area with no infection.This paper mainly focuses on development of an Android application which can inform people of the COVID-19 containment zones and prevent trespassing into these zones. This Android application updates the locations of the areas in a Google map which are identified to be the containment zones. The application also notifies the users if they have entered a containment zone and uploads the user’s IMEI number to the online database. With this IMEI number, the police can keep an eye on the people who are frequently violating the lockdown rules. To achieve all these functionalities, many tools and APIs from Google like Firebase and Geofence are used in this app. Therefore, this application can be used as a tool for creating further social awareness about the arising need of precautionary measures to be taken by the people of India.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 67-72
Author(s):  
E. A. Katunina ◽  
Yu. N. Bezdolnyi ◽  
N. N. Shipilova

The novel coronavirus infection pandemic prompted not only the development of vaccines, but also the study of the effectiveness of already known drugs with antiviral activity. These drugs include adamantanes.Objective: to assess possible mechanisms of antiviral action of amantadine and memantine.Patients and methods. The study included 75 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD): 49 (65.3%) women and 26 (34.7%) men. The age of the patients ranged from 37 to 88 years (mean age: 65±7 years). The duration of the disease varied from 1 to 25 years (mean 12±7 years). Among the monitored PD patients, 22 (29.3%) had a novel coronavirus infection. Of 22 patients with coronavirus infection, 8 (36.4%) patients received adamantanes (four – amantadine sulfate, three – amantadine hydrochloride, one – memantine) in the complex therapy of PD for at least 3 months. On average, the duration of adamantane administration was 8±5 months.Results and discussion. PD patients who received adamantanes were less likely to develop COVID-19 than those who did not take adamantanes (p<0.05). At the same time, there were no significant differences in gender, age, duration of the disease and concomitant pathology in the com pared groups (p>0.05). Among patients who received adamantanes, the disease proceeded more easily, the number of cases of pneumonia was 3 times less (odds ratio 3; 95% confidence interval 0.44–20.3). In this group, no lethal outcomes were recorded, however, due to the small sample of patients, the differences between the groups were not statistically significant (÷2=1.99; p>0.05).Conclusion. The results of a retrospective study showed that the use of amantadine and memantine in patients with PD may have an effect on reducing morbidity and mortality in the novel coronavirus infection. This is consistent with published clinical observations suggesting a possible protective effect of amantadine and memantine against coronavirus infection.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abderrahmane Achbani ◽  
Sofiane Ait wahmane ◽  
Zakaria Ouhaz ◽  
Mohamed Elatiqi ◽  
Hasnaa Sine ◽  
...  

Background: The novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV caused by SARS-CoV-2, has caused global, large and major public health issues. During the pandemic, different public health strategies were implemented in order to reduce the spread of this virus. These strategies consisted on increasing the frequency of hand-washing, using personal protection equipment, social distancing and restricting movements cities along with sealing national borders. During this crisis, Health Systems undergo important pressure and remarkable efforts were implemented to provide an efficacious reaction to this emergency. However, the actual global policy of diverting the attention exclusively to the COVID-19 pandemic and overshadowing other clinical conditions may have substantial negative implications. There are particular concerns around the increased vulnerability of patients living with a chronic disease, and this also includes neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease (PD). Aims:  This review discusses the different outcomes of social distancing on PD patients and summarizes the circuitry of social behaviour in the context of PD. We consider the possible psychological and behavioral outcomes of quarantine and social isolation as part of national policies to limit the spread of the virus. Conclusion: In total, this evidence suggests that the drastic COVID19 pandemic measures could result in affective, cognitive and psychological alterations in these patients. Given this we suggest that patients with PD should be accompanied by their caregivers and encouraged to interact virtually with other family members and friends using different communication technologies. We also recommend healthcare providers to adopt telemedicine for outpatients visits and display educational programs for the patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lange ◽  
Riyi Shi

This review aims to provide insight into the possible long-term neurological complications that COVID-19 patients may experience after the resolution of intense acute inflammation characterized as “cytokine storm.” Neurological symptoms such as fatigue, headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion, dyspnea, anorexia, malaise, myalgia, ataxia, seizure, hypogeusia, and hyposmia are commonly seen in these patients. COVID-19 related encephalitis is also seen sporadically. However, some researchers believe neuroinflammation is more common than what is reported. Neurological abnormalities that are linked to neuroinflammation are of particular concern because neuroinflammation is hypothesized to cause neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and Schizophrenia. Many potential routes can lead to inflammation in the nervous system and elicit neuron cell death in COVID-19 patients. These include the potential neurotropic pathway of the novel coronavirus, CNS parenchymal infectability, thrombotic ischemic stroke, cytokine storm, and blood-brain barrier breakdown. Past pandemics of similar neurotropic viruses could also offer insights regarding the long-term neurological effects of COVID-19. In support of our hypothesis, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 saw an increased incidence of neurodegenerative disease, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia. We do not know exactly what the future will hold for COVID-19 however, it is of paramount importance to attempt to anticipate and prepare for the possible chronic neurological sequelae and mitigate or prevent their effects. 


Author(s):  
Walaa A. Kamel ◽  
Ismail Ibrahim Ismail ◽  
Mohamed Ibrahim ◽  
Jasem Y. Al-Hashel

Abstract Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition that has been reported following viral infections in rare occasions. Several neurological complications have emerged in association with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), since its declaration as a pandemic. Herein, we present a novel case of unexplained worsening of PD as the sole initial presentation of COVID-19, in the absence of fever or respiratory symptoms. Case presentation A 56-year-old male with advanced PD presented with severe rigidity, dystonic posturing of both feet, and confusion of 4 days duration. His condition progressed to an akinetic-rigid state and confusion during the following week, and a routine nasopharyngeal swab tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on the 9th day of onset. He developed fever and dyspnea later and was intubated on the 10th day. Conclusion To our knowledge, worsening of PD symptoms as the sole initial manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 infection, in the absence of other cardinal features of COVID-19, has not been reported in the literature. We suggest testing for COVID-19 infection in patients with PD, especially advanced cases, who present with unexplained worsening of symptoms, even in the absence of COVID-19 cardinal features.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-119
Author(s):  
Beata Szluz

Due to the aging of societies the increased prevalence of patients with dementia is observed. Parkinson’s disease is one of the most frequent neurodegenerative disorders and occurs mainly among the people agedover 50 years. Caring for a person with Parkinson’s disease is not only exhausting physically and emotionally, but it also meanshigh financial costs. Caring is associated with a high risk of a decreasedquality of life, it is especially in case of the family caregivers who are emotionally attached to the patient. The article attempts to show the problems associated with caring for a person with Parkinson’s disease that set tasks for social work with a family experiencing disease and disability. The survey was conducted in July 2019 in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, using the (In-Depth Interview – IDI technique. The study was qualitative. Its assumption was not to obtain representative data characterizing the family caregivers of people with Parkinson’s disease, but to try to capture how the problems associated with caring for this category of patients burden caregivers and to what extent they expect support (supporting supporters). Presenting the burden on family caregivers in the light of qualitative research made it possible to identify the specific tasks facing a social worker who works with the family of a chronically ill elderly person and to propose a training program for caregivers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara V Azizova ◽  
Maria V Bannikova ◽  
Evgeniya S Grigoryeva ◽  
Valentina L Rybkina ◽  
Nobuyuki Hamada

Abstract Background Patients receiving radiotherapy demonstrate cognitive deficits, impairment of neurogenesis and neurovascular damage developing as late side effects of radiation exposure to the head. In light of the increasing use of diagnostic radiological procedures, epidemiological data raise concerns about possible harmful effects of low-level radiation on the human brain. A series of studies of chronically exposed Russian nuclear workers have provided information on risks of cancer and non-cancer diseases. Methods This study aimed to assess the risk of Parkinson’s-disease (PD) incidence in a cohort of workers occupationally exposed to chronic radiation. The cohort comprised workers of a Russian nuclear production facility who were first employed in 1948–1982 and followed up until the end of 2013 (22 377 individuals; 25% female). Using the AMFIT module of EPICURE software, relative risk and excess relative risk per unit dose (ERR/Gy) were calculated based on maximum likelihood. Results A linear association was found between PD incidence and cumulative γ-dose after adjusting for sex and attained age [ERR/Gy = 1.02 (95% confidence interval, 0.59 to 1.63, p = 5.44 × 10–5)]. The ERR/Gy of external radiation for PD incidence was stable after adjusting for neutron dose (ERR/Gy = 1.03; 95% confidence interval: 0.59 to 1.67, p = 6.86 × 10–5). The risk increased with increasing lag period and decreased notably after adjusting for body mass index, smoking and alcohol consumption. Additional adjustments for hypertension, gout, gastric ulcer, head injuries with loss of awareness and diabetes mellitus did not affect the risk estimate. Conclusions This study is the first to suggest that PD is associated with prolonged occupational external γ-ray exposure.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingyu Zhang ◽  
Liping Zhang ◽  
Yanwei Li ◽  
Lin Li ◽  
Josefine Ulrikke Melchiorsen ◽  
...  

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