Coronavirus can increase stroke risk in young adults, doctors say
By: Team Ifairer | Posted: 23-04-2020
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Doctors at Mount Sinai Health System in New York are warning the public of another risk associated with coronavirus: the possibility that the virus can cause sudden strokes in patients under the age of 50, even those who only seem to have a mild case of COVID-19. "The virus seems to be causing increased clotting in the large arteries, leading to severe stroke,"neurosurgeon Dr. Thomas Oxley told.
In a letter to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Oxley and his colleagues outlined what they said was a seven-fold increase in strokes in young patients in the midst of the pandemic. All of these patients were under the age of 50 and tested positive for coronavirus, but in most cases had little-to-no other symptoms of COVID-19. In the letter, the doctors say that they usually experience fewer than two strokes per month from people in this age group, but in a two week period they treated five.