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Objective: To determine the prevalence and associated mortality of well-defined neurologic diagnoses among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we prospectively followed hospitalized severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-positive patients and recorded new neurologic disorders and hospital outcomes., Methods: We conducted a prospective, multicenter, observational study of consecutive hospitalized adults in the New York City metropolitan area with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The prevalence of new neurologic disorders (as diagnosed by a neurologist) was recorded and in-hospital mortality and discharge disposition were compared between patients with COVID-19 with and without neurologic disorders., Results: Of 4,491 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized during the study timeframe, 606 (13.5%) developed a new neurologic disorder in a median of 2 days from COVID-19 symptom onset. The most common diagnoses were toxic/metabolic encephalopathy (6.8%), seizure (1.6%), stroke (1.9%), and hypoxic/ischemic injury (1.4%). No patient had meningitis/encephalitis or myelopathy/myelitis referable to SARS-CoV-2 infection and 18/18 CSF specimens were reverse transcriptase PCR negative for SARS-CoV-2. Patients with neurologic disorders were more often older, male, white, hypertensive, diabetic, intubated, and had higher sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) scores (all p < 0.05). After adjusting for age, sex, SOFA scores, intubation, history, medical complications, medications, and comfort care status, patients with COVID-19 with neurologic disorders had increased risk of in-hospital mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 1.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.17-1.62, p < 0.001) and decreased likelihood of discharge home (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.63-0.85, p < 0.001)., Conclusions: Neurologic disorders were detected in 13.5% of patients with COVID-19 and were associated with increased risk of in-hospital mortality and decreased likelihood of discharge home. Many observed neurologic disorders may be sequelae of severe systemic illness., (© 2020 American Academy of Neurology.)

Background: Critically ill coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients have frequent thrombotic complications and laboratory evidence of hypercoagulability. The relationship of coagulation tests and thrombosis requires investigation to identify best diagnostic and treatment approaches. We assessed for hypercoagulable characteristics in critically ill COVID-19 patients using rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) and explored relationships of D-dimer and ROTEM measurements with thrombotic complications., Methods: Critically ill adult COVID-19 patients receiving ROTEM testing between March and April 2020 were analyzed. Patients receiving therapeutic anticoagulation before ROTEM were excluded. Rotational thromboelastometry measurements from COVID-19 patients were compared with non-COVID-19 patients matched by age, sex, and body mass index. Intergroup differences in ROTEM measurements were assessed using t tests. Correlations of D-dimer levels to ROTEM measurements were assessed in COVID-19 patients who had available concurrent testing. Intergroup differences of D-dimer and ROTEM measurements were explored in COVID-19 patients with and without thrombosis., Results: Of 30 COVID-19 patients receiving ROTEM, we identified hypercoagulability from elevated fibrinogen compared with non-COVID-19 patients (fibrinogen assay maximum clot firmness [MCF], 47 ± 13 mm vs. 20 ± 7 mm; mean intergroup difference, 27.4 mm; 95% confidence interval [CI], 22.1-32.7 mm; p < 0.0001). In our COVID-19 cohort, thrombotic complications were identified in 33%. In COVID-19 patients developing thrombotic complications, we identified higher D-dimer levels (17.5 ± 4.3 μg/mL vs. 8.0 ± 6.3 μg/mL; mean difference, 9.5 μg/mL; 95% CI, 13.9-5.1; p < 0.0001) but lower fibrinogen assay MCF (39.7 ± 10.8 mm vs. 50.1 ± 12.0 mm; mean difference, -11.2 mm; 95% CI, -2.1 to -20.2; p = 0.02) compared with patients without thrombosis. We identified negative correlations of D-dimer levels and ROTEM MCF in these patients (r = -0.61; p = 0.001)., Conclusion: We identified elevated D-dimer levels and hypercoagulable blood clot characteristics from increased fibrinogen on ROTEM testing in critically ill COVID-19 patients. However, we identified lower, albeit still hypercoagulable, ROTEM measurements of fibrinogen in COVID-19 patients with thrombotic complications compared with those without. Further work is required to externally validate these findings and to investigate the mechanistic drivers for these relationships to identify best diagnostic and treatment approaches for these patients., Level of Evidence: Epidemiologic, level IV., (Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background and Purpose: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused unprecedented demand and burden on emergency health care services in New York City. We aim to describe our experience providing acute stroke care at a comprehensive stroke center (CSC) and the impact of the pandemic on the quality of care for patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke (AIS)., Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from a quality improvement registry of consecutive AIS patients at New York University Langone Health's CSC between 06/01/2019-05/15/2020. During the early stages of the pandemic, the acute stroke process was modified to incorporate COVID-19 screening, testing, and other precautionary measures. We compared stroke quality metrics including treatment times and discharge outcomes of AIS patients during the pandemic (03/012020-05/152020) compared with a historical pre-pandemic group (6/1/2019-2/29/2020)., Results: A total of 754 patients (pandemic-120; pre-pandemic-634) were admitted with a principal diagnosis of AIS; 198 (26.3%) received alteplase and/or mechanical thrombectomy. Despite longer median door to head CT times (16 vs 12 minutes; p = 0.05) and a trend towards longer door to groin puncture times (79.5 vs. 71 min, p = 0.06), the time to alteplase administration (36 vs 35 min; p = 0.83), door to reperfusion times (103 vs 97 min, p = 0.18) and defect-free care (95.2% vs 94.7%; p = 0.84) were similar in the pandemic and pre-pandemic groups. Successful recanalization rates (TICI≥2b) were also similar (82.6% vs. 86.7%, p = 0.48). After adjusting for stroke severity, age and a prior history of transient ischemic attack/stroke, pandemic patients had increased discharge mortality (adjusted OR 2.90 95% CI 1.77 - 7.17, p = 0.021) CONCLUSION: Despite unprecedented demands on emergency healthcare services, early multidisciplinary efforts to adapt the acute stroke treatment process resulted in keeping the stroke quality time metrics close to pre-pandemic levels. Future studies will be needed with a larger cohort comparing discharge and long-term outcomes between pre-pandemic and pandemic AIS patients., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background and Purpose: We conducted this study to investigate the prevalence and distribution of cerebral microbleeds and leukoencephalopathy in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and correlate with clinical, laboratory, and functional outcomes., Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of 4131 COVID-19 positive adult patients who were admitted to 3 tertiary care hospitals of an academic medical center at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City from March 1, 2020, to May 10, 2020, to identify patients who had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. We evaluated the MRIs in detail, and identified a subset of patients with leukoencephalopathy and/or cerebral microbleeds. We compared clinical, laboratory, and functional outcomes for these patients to patients who had a brain MRI that did not show these findings., Results: Of 115 patients who had an MRI of the brain performed, 35 (30.4%) patients had leukoencephalopathy and/or cerebral microbleeds. Patients with leukoencephalopathy and/or cerebral microbleeds had neuroimaging performed later during the hospitalization course (27 versus 10.6 days; P <0.001), were clinically sicker at the time of brain MRI (median GCS 6 versus 14; P <0.001), and had higher peak D-dimer levels (8018±6677 versus 3183±3482; P <0.001), lower nadir platelet count (116.9±62.2 versus 158.3±76.2; P =0.03), higher peak international normalized ratio (2.2 versus 1.57; P <0.001) values when compared with patients who had a brain MRI that did not show these findings. They required longer ventilator support (34.6 versus 9.1 days; P <0.001) and were more likely to have moderate and severe acute respiratory distress syndrome score (88.6% versus 23.8%, P <0.001). These patients had longer hospitalizations (42.1 versus 20.9 days; P <0.001), overall worse functional status on discharge (mRS 5 versus 4; P =0.001), and higher mortality (20% versus 9%; P =0.144)., Conclusions: The presence of leukoencephalopathy and/or cerebral microbleeds is associated with a critical illness, increased mortality, and worse functional outcome in patients with COVID-19.

Objective: To outline changes made to a neurology residency program in response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)., Methods: In early March 2020, the first cases of COVID-19 were announced in the United States. New York City quickly became the epicenter of a global pandemic, and our training program needed to rapidly adapt to the increasing number of inpatient cases while being mindful of protecting providers and continuing education. Many of these changes unfolded over days, including removing residents from outpatient services, minimizing the number of residents on inpatient services, deploying residents to medicine services and medical intensive care units, converting continuity clinic patient visits to virtual options, transforming didactics to online platforms only, and maintaining connectedness in an era of social distancing. We have been able to accomplish this through daily virtual meetings among leadership, faculty, and residents., Results: Over time, our program has successfully rolled out initiatives to service the growing number of COVID-related inpatients while maintaining neurologic care for those in need and continuing our neurologic education curriculum., Conclusion: It has been necessary and feasible for our residency training program to undergo rapid structural changes to adapt to a medical crisis. The key ingredients in doing this successfully have been flexibility and teamwork. We suspect that many of the implemented changes will persist long after the COVID-19 crisis has passed and will change the approach to neurologic and medical training., (© 2020 American Academy of Neurology.)

Objective: Threat perceptions in the emergency department (ED; e.g., patients' subjective feelings of helplessness or lack of control) during evaluation for an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) are associated with the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and PTSD has been associated with medication nonadherence, cardiac event recurrence, and mortality. This study reports the development and validation of a seven-item measure of ED threat perceptions in English- and Spanish-speaking patients evaluated for ACS., Methods: Participants were drawn from an observational cohort study of 1,000 patients evaluated for ACS between 2013 and 2016 in a large New York City hospital. Participants reported on threat perceptions in the ED and during inpatient stay (using 12 items previously identified as predictive of PTSD) and reported on cardiac-induced PTSD 1 month postdischarge. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to establish the factor structure and test measurement invariance. Validity and reliability were examined, as was the association of ED threat perceptions with cardiac-induced PTSD., Results: Factor analyses identified a seven-item measure of ED threat perceptions (e.g., "I feel helpless," "I am worried that I am going to die") for both English- and Spanish-speaking patients. ED threat perceptions demonstrated convergent validity, correlating with ED stress and ED crowdedness (r = 0.29 and r = 0.14), good internal consistency (α = 0.82), and stability (r = 0.61). Threat perceptions were associated with cardiac-induced acute stress at inpatient and PTSD symptoms at 1 month (r = 0.43 and r = 0.39)., Conclusions: This brief tool assessing ED threat perceptions has clinical utility for providers to identify patients at risk for developing cardiac-induced PTSD and is critical to inform research on whether threat may be modified in-ED to reduce PTSD incidence., (© 2018 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.)