No substantial neurocognitive impact of COVID-19 across ages and disease severity: a multicenter biomarker study of SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative adult and pediatric patients with acute respiratory tract infections.

Background: Compared to intensive care unit patients with SARS-CoV-2 negative acute respiratory tract infections, patients with SARS-CoV-2 are supposed to develop more frequently and more severely neurologic sequelae. Delirium and subsequent neurocognitive deficits (NCD) have implications for patients' morbidity and mortality. However, the extent of brain injury during acute COVID-19 and subsequent NCD still remain largely unexplored. Body-fluid biomarkers may offer valuable insights into the quantification of acute delirium, brain injury and may help to predict subsequent NCD following COVID-19.

Methods: In a multicenter, observational case-control study, conducted across four German University Hospitals, hospitalized adult and pediatric patients with an acute COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 negative controls presenting with acute respiratory tract infections were included. Study procedures comprised the assessment of pre-existing neurocognitive function, daily screening for delirium, neurological examination and blood sampling. Fourteen biomarkers indicative of neuroaxonal, glial, neurovascular injury and inflammation were analyzed. Neurocognitive functions were re-evaluated after three months.

Results: We enrolled 118 participants (90 adults, 28 children). The incidence of delirium [85 out of 90 patients (94.4%) were assessable for delirium) was comparable between patients with COVID-19 [16 out of 61 patients (26.2%)] and SARS-CoV-2 negative controls [8 out of 24 patients (33.3%); p > 0.05] across adults and children. No differences in outcomes as measured by the modified Rankin Scale, the Short-Blessed Test, the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly, and the pediatrics cerebral performance category scale were observed after three months. Levels of body-fluid biomarkers were generally elevated in both adult and pediatric cohorts, without significant differences between SARS-CoV-2 negative controls and COVID-19. In COVID-19 patients experiencing delirium, levels of GFAP and MMP-9 were significantly higher compared to those without delirium.

Conclusions: Delirium and subsequent NCD are not more frequent in COVID-19 as compared to SARS-CoV-2 negative patients with acute respiratory tract infections. Consistently, biomarker levels of brain injury indicated no differences between COVID-19 cases and SARS-CoV-2 negative controls. Our data suggest that delirium in COVID-19 does not distinctly trigger substantial and persistent subsequent NCD compared to patients with other acute respiratory tract infections.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04359914; date of registration 24-APR 2020.