COVID-19-Associated Carotid Atherothrombosis and Stroke

C Esenwa; N T Cheng; E Lipsitz; K Hsu; R Zampolin; A Gersten; D Antoniello; A Soetanto; K Kirchoff; A Liberman; P Mabie; T Nisar; D Rahimian; A Brook; S-K Lee; N Haranhalli; D Altschul; D Labovitz

doi:10.3174/ajnr.A6752

COVID-19-Associated Carotid Atherothrombosis and Stroke

AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2020 Nov;41(11):1993-1995. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A6752. Epub 2020 Aug 20.

Authors

C Esenwa¹, N T Cheng², E Lipsitz³, K Hsu⁴, R Zampolin⁴, A Gersten⁵, D Antoniello², A Soetanto², K Kirchoff², A Liberman², P Mabie², T Nisar², D Rahimian², A Brook⁴, S-K Lee⁴, N Haranhalli⁶, D Altschul⁶, D Labovitz²

Affiliations

¹ From the Department of Neurology (C.E.E., N.T.C., D.A., A.S., K.K., A.L., P.M., T.N., D.R., D.L.) cesenwa@montefiore.org.
² From the Department of Neurology (C.E.E., N.T.C., D.A., A.S., K.K., A.L., P.M., T.N., D.R., D.L.).
³ Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (E.L.), Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.
⁴ Radiology (K.H., R.Z., A.B., S.-K.L.).
⁵ Pathology (A.G.).
⁶ Neurosurgery (N.H., D.A,), Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.

Abstract

We present a radiology-pathology case series of 3 patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with acute ischemic stroke due to fulminant carotid thrombosis overlying mild atherosclerotic plaque and propose a novel stroke mechanism: COVID-associated carotid atherothrombosis.

MeSH terms

Aged
Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
Carotid Artery Diseases / virology*
Carotid Artery Thrombosis / etiology*
Coronavirus Infections / complications*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Pandemics
Plaque, Atherosclerotic / pathology
Pneumonia, Viral / complications*
Risk Factors
SARS-CoV-2
Stroke / etiology*

Grants and funding

R21 EB022291/EB/NIBIB NIH HHS/United States