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Article Dans Une Revue Journal of Neurology Année : 2021

Critical illness-associated cerebral microbleeds for patients with severe COVID-19: etiologic hypotheses

Olivier Collange
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Nicolas Meyer
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Résumé

Background and purpose: During the COVID-19 outbreak, the presence of extensive white matter microhemorrhages was detected by brain MRIs. The goal of this study was to investigate the origin of this atypical hemorrhagic complication. Methods: Between March 17 and May 18, 2020, 80 patients with severe COVID-19 infections were admitted for acute respiratory distress syndrome to intensive care units at the University Hospitals of Strasbourg for whom a brain MRI for neurologic manifestations was performed. 19 patients (24%) with diffuse microhemorrhages were compared to 18 control patients with COVID-19 and normal brain MRI. Results: The first hypothesis was hypoxemia. The latter seemed very likely since respiratory failure was longer and more pronounced in patients with microhemorrhages (prolonged endotracheal intubation (p = 0.0002), higher FiO2 (p = 0.03), increased use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (p = 0.04)). A relevant hypothesis, the role of microangiopathy, was also considered, since patients with microhemorrhages presented a higher increase of the D-Dimers (p = 0.01) and a tendency to more frequent thrombotic events (p = 0.12). Another hypothesis tested was the role of kidney failure, which was more severe in the group with diffuse microhemorrhages (higher creatinine level [median of 293 µmol/L versus 112 µmol/L, p = 0.04] and more dialysis were introduced in this group during ICU stay [12 versus 5 patients, p = 0.04]). Conclusions: Blood-brain barrier dysfunction secondary to hypoxemia and high concentration of uremic toxins seems to be the main mechanism leading to critical illness-associated cerebral microbleeds, and this complication remains to be frequently described in severe COVID-19 patients. Keywords: COVID-19; Hypoxemia; Kidney failure; MRI; Microhemorrhages.

Dates et versions

hal-03603567 , version 1 (09-03-2022)

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Citer

François Lersy, Thibault Willaume, Jean-Christophe Brisset, Olivier Collange, Julie Helms, et al.. Critical illness-associated cerebral microbleeds for patients with severe COVID-19: etiologic hypotheses. Journal of Neurology, 2021, 268 (8), pp.2676-2684. ⟨10.1007/s00415-020-10313-8⟩. ⟨hal-03603567⟩
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