The study, published in JAMA Neurology, was conducted at two hospitals in New York City. It included 1,916 adult patients with COVID-19 who visited the emergency department or were hospitalized between March 4 and May 2. Researchers compared the COVID-19 patients with 1,486 adults with the flu who visited the emergency department or were hospitalized between Jan. 1, 2016 and May 31, 2018.
Researchers found that 31 (1.6 percent) of the 1,916 COVID-19 patients had an acute ischemic stroke, compared to three (0.2 percent) of the 1,486 flu patients.
After adjusting for age, sex and race, the likelihood of stroke was about seven times higher among the COVID-19 patients than with the flu patients.
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