More Data Suggest COVID-19 Precipitating Stroke in People Age 30 to 50
Analysis of a clinical dataset (TriNetX, Cambridge, MA) of over 66,000 individuals with confirmed COVID-19, shows more than a twofold increase in stroke risk in those age 30 to 50 years compared with known risk for that age group without COVID-19 (26% vs 11%).
Analysis of this large dataset for stroke occurrence was sparked by a report from Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan in the New England Journal of Medicine on April 28. The doctors reported 5 cases of large-vessel stroke in individuals age 50 years or less who were diagnosed with COVID-19. The dataset used is the largest available clinical dataset of individuals who have been diagnosed with the virus is being constantly refreshed on a platform enabling researchers to apply their own algorithms and research models to derive critical insights into the virus.
"What is striking is not that there are more strokes in COVID-19 victims, but more strokes in a younger population where you wouldn't normally see them," said Jennifer Stacey, vice president, Clinical Sciences at TriNetX. "The findings are telling us there are a lot of patients in their 30s and 40s who are otherwise healthy who unexpectedly suffered a stroke and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. Our data replicated exactly what the doctors at Mount Sinai were reporting, but in a much larger global patient population."
The COVID-19-specific data is providing researchers with up-to-date patient-level clinical data for those diagnosed with the virus to help develop supportive, curative, and preventative therapies for the disease. The data, which is growing daily, includes demographics, diagnoses, procedures, medications, and lab test results.
"There is a wide range of research being conducted on the disease," said Stacey. "The growing, up-to-date data in the network is enabling researchers to study patients who have received various therapies to assess the true effectiveness they are having on actual COVID-19 patients."