Acta neurologica Belgica
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Since December 2019, the world is affected by an outbreak of a new disease named COVID-19, which is an acronym of 'coronavirus disease 2019'. Coronaviruses (CoV) were assumed to be associated with mild upper respiratory tract infections, such as common cold. ⋯ In this review, we will give a summary of the neurological manifestations due to SARS and MERS, as those might predict the neurological outcome in the novel COVID-19. Additionally, we provide an overview of the current knowledge concerning neurological manifestations associated with COVID-19, to the extent that literature is already available as the pandemic is still ongoing.
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Acta neurologica Belgica · Oct 2020
ReviewFacing acute neuromuscular diseases during COVID-19 pandemic: focus on Guillain-Barré syndrome.
In December 2019, a cluster of cases with 2019 Novel Coronavirus pneumonia from Wuhan, China, aroused worldwide concern due to an escalating outbreak in all the countries in the world. Coronavirus belongs to a family of single-stranded RNA viruses, which includes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), that have caused human epidemics with high fatality. The spectrum of the novel coronavirus disease (SARS-Co-2 or COVID-19) ranges from asymptomatic infections to fatal pneumonia, and differs from other viral pulmonary infections. ⋯ Extensive reports from China documented central and peripheral nervous system involvement in patients with COVID-19, and identified in angiotensin converting enzyme2 (ACE2), which is present in multiple human organs, the functional receptor for this virus. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) has recently been associated to COVID-19 rising concern among physicians. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge on GBS during or after COVID-19 infection, attempting to clarify the pathophysiology of the associated respiratory dysfunction and failure.