Associate professor of neurology, and division chief, vascular neurology, the Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island; and codirector, comprehensive stroke center, Rhode Island Hospital in Providence

Shadi Yaghi, MD

Results from a recently published study led by Shadi Yaghi, MD, and colleagues revealed that of 3556 participants, 0.9% of patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of COVID-19 had imaging proven ischemic stroke.

Mounting evidence from previous studies suggests that patients affected by the illness may develop clinically significant coagulopathy with thromboembolic complications. Yagdhi, an assistant professor and the director of Clinical Vascular Neurology Research at NYU Langone, claims there needs to be additional prospective studies and patients with COVID-19 need to be followed to fully understand how it may impact stroke on a daily basis.

, Yaghi dives into the specific measures needed to take in order to better understand the correlation between stroke and COVID-19. He also stresses the importance of testing patients for neurological complications during an in-hospital setting.

Yaghi, S, Koto I, Torres J, et al. Stroke. 2020;51:00—00. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.030335

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The assistant professor and director of Clinical Vascular Neurology Research at NYU Langone shares his reaction to data that has been published and what needs to be researched going forward.

Shadi Yaghi, MD: Future Research on Stroke and COVID-19

“[With] most of the strokes that happened in the setting of COVID-19 infection, patients had elevated clotting factors in the blood, which heads towards [the possibility that] maybe there’s some increased clotting with COVID-19 that drives stroke.”

A recently published prospective cohort study of consecutive patients hospitalized within a major health system in New York, the epicenter of pandemic, aimed to compare the clinical characteristics of patients with stroke who also have a diagnosis of COVID-19 with those of stroke patients without COVID-19.

Among the 3556 hospitalized patients with diagnosis of COVID-19, 32 (0.9%) had imaging-proven stroke. Data showed that cryptogenic stroke was more common in patients with COVID-19 (65.6%) compared with contemporary controls (30.4%; 

Lead study investigator Shadi Yaghi, MD, assistant professor, director, Clinical Vascular Neurology Research, NYU Langone, discussed the results with 

, and detailed what particularly stood out to him from the data. He also spoke to the hard realities of diagnosing stroke that is directly related to a COVID-19 diagnosis.

The assistant professor and director of Clinical Vascular Neurology Research at NYU Langone gives perspective on his recent study of patients with stroke and COVID-19 and the difficulties in understanding their relationship.

Shadi Yaghi, MD

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Shadi Yaghi, MD: Future Research on Stroke and COVID-19

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