Neuroimaging Findings of Brain Computed Tomography And Magnetic Resonance Imaging Of Covid-19 Patients: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Novel Corona virus-2019 (SARS-CoV-2) has been spreading in continents around the globe and effective treatment has yet not been developed against this novel infection. The victims of COVID-19 tend to develop abnormal neuroimaging features on brain-CT and MRI Imaging. Objective: To assess the incidences of abnormal neuroimaging features in the sufferers of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: PubMed, Science Direct. Research Gate, Medline and Google Scholar were searched till 28th March 2021 to highlight the incidences of abnormal neuroimaging features in the sufferers of SARS-CoV-2 infection. After screening of literature, only twenty-one (21) articles were included. All data extracted from them was further analysed through meta-analysis. Results: Twenty-one (21) eligible articles with one thousand six hundred and forty-four (1644) verified COVID-19 patients were included. The average age of SARS-CoV-2 patients is 65.20 years with 67.1% males and 32.9% females. Brain CT scan (46.2%), brain MRI (41.3%) and both brain CT and brain MRI (12.5%) were used to detect neuroimaging features. The pooled incidences of acute or sub-acute infarctions were most common (25.88%), followed by cerebral micro-bleed (20.05%), encephalitis/encephalopathy (14.53%), and acute spontaneous non-traumatic intracranial haemorrhages (7.55%). Conclusions: The current systematic review concluded that during the spread of the current COVID-19 pandemic, many SARS-CoV-2 patients manifested neurologic symptoms. Out of these neurological manifestations, acute or sub-acute infarction and cerebral micro-bleed are most common.