Prevalence of Neurological Symptoms in Patients with COVID-19 Hospitalized in Hospitals of Arak University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: One of the clinical manifestations of coronavirus is neurological symptoms. However, due to the emergence of this virus, little information is available about its symptoms. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of neurological symptoms in patients with coronavirus at hospitals in Arak. Methods: In this study, all patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in two hospitals in Arak who were willing to participate were selected by census. The questionnaires consisted of two parts: demographic information and the prevalence and severity of neurological symptoms, which were completed by interviews with patients. Results: 208 patients with a mean age of 60.5±14.1 years participated in the study. Of the 20 neurological symptoms studied, only two (tingling around the mouth and cranial nerve palsy) were absent in patients. The most common neurological symptoms in patients were headache (82.5%), fatigue (81%) and muscle pain (74.9%), respectively. Also, according to the visual scale, participants reported the highest severity for headache (average: 7.5), followed by fatigue (average: 7.03), and muscle weakness (average: 6.9). Conclusions: The results showed that the most common neurological symptoms in patients with coronary heart disease include headache, fatigue, and muscle pain and the most severe neurological symptoms in these patients are headache, fatigue, and muscle weakness. According to the findings of this study, these results can be used to diagnose patients and follow them up.