key: cord-0763870-isk77kf6
authors: Solaro, Claudio; Gamberini, Giulia; Masuccio, Fabio Giuseppe
title: Cognitive impairment in young COVID-19 patients: the tip of the iceberg?
date: 2021-08-17
journal: Neurol Sci
DOI: 10.1007/s10072-021-05534-2
sha: f438a3c11f6882631624ccb02e06e80f87b3f6e6
doc_id: 763870
cord_uid: isk77kf6

nan

Out of 522 subjects admitted to the Internal Medicine COVID Unit from the 1st of November 2020 to the 31st of March 2021, 32 patients were selected (mean age = 53.7(4.8); 19 M/13F); 5 subjects reported type 2 diabetes mellitus, 11 hypertension, and 3 asthma.

No subjects showed anxiety (mean HAM-A score = 6(10)) and/or depressive symptoms (mean HAM-D score = 5(8.5)). The mean score of MoCA test, corrected for age and education, was 20(8) ( Table 1) .

MoCA score of 23 classified 13 (36.67%) cognitively impaired and 19 unimpaired subjects (63.33%). The two groups were comparable for age, sex, COVID-19 onset symptoms, blood oxygen saturation and heart rate before and after MoCA, frequency of comorbidities, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. In addition, 10 out of 19 unimpaired subjects at MoCA were further tested with Trial Making Test (attention) and Symbol Digit (executive functions), showing pathological scores in 8 subjects, while Phonemic Fluency was in range.

MoCA is a useful screening tool to detect cognitive impairment in sub-acute COVID-19 but without enough sensitivity in younger. Results suggest a significant unexpected rate of cognitive impairment in young sub-acute COVID-19 subjects at time of hospital discharge. The ongoing followup will be crucial to understand the impact on everyday life and work. The results highlight the need of a multidisciplinary team to face the major rehabilitation and socio-economic relevance issues in the frame of the so-called long COVID [5, 6] .

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