COVID-19 in multiple sclerosis patients and risk factors for severe infection

Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients have been considered a higher-risk population for COVID-19 due to the high prevalence of disability and disease-modifying therapy use; however, there is little data identifying clinical characteristics of MS associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes. Therefore, we conducted a multicenter prospective cohort study looking at the outcomes of 40 MS patients with confirmed COVID-19. Severity of COVID-19 infection was based on hospital course, where a mild course was defined as the patient not requiring hospital admission, moderate severity was defined as the patient requiring hospital admission to the general floor, and most severe was defined as requiring intensive care unit admission and/or death.

Source: Journal of the Neurological Sciences - September 18, 2020 Category: Neurology Authors: Farhan ChaudhryMS, Helena BulkaDO, Anirudha S. RathnamMD, Omar M. SaidBS, Jia LinMD, Holly LoriganDO, Eva BernitsasMD, Jacob RubeMD, Steven J. KorzeniewskiPhD, Anza B. MemonMD, Phillip D. LevyMD, Lonni SchultzPhD, Adil JavedMD, Robert LisakMD, Mirela Cerg Source Type: research