Limitations
- The sample size of hospitalized patients was small.
- A larger fraction of hospitalized patients in the sample completed outcome assessments, compared with ambulatory patients, indicating that remote computerized testing did not present a disproportionate access barrier for patients with more severe illness.
- Owing to limited instances of delirium, seizures, and stroke, it was not possible to directly consider the contributions of these events to post–COVID-19 subjective complaints and objective impairment.
- The researchers depended on a 45-minute computerized test battery, which eliminates exposure risk and is available to patients in remote locations, but it necessitates computer literacy and access to a home desktop computer. While this requirement may have skewed the sample toward a more socioeconomically advantaged and younger population, there were no differences in age, race, or ethnicity between those who completed the computerized outcome assessments and those who did not. For patients who are able to give consent electronically, computerized testing does not pose an additional barrier.
- As a result of this study’s cross-sectional nature, the researchers could not comment on the natural history and long-term risk of COVID-19 cognitive impairment. It will be crucial to monitor cognitive progression at future time points to assess the rate and predictors of cognitive normalization versus decline.
Study disclosures
- Gregory S. Day, a coauthor, owns stock (greater than $10,000) in ANI Pharmaceuticals, a generic pharmaceutical company. He serves as a topic editor for DynaMed (EBSCO), overseeing development of evidence-based educational content, a consultant for Parabon Nanolabs (advice relevant to National Institutes of Health small business grant submission), and as the clinical director of the Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis Foundation, Canada (uncompensated). The other authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
This is a summary of a preprint research study, “Neurocognitive Screening in Patients Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Tools for Triage,” written by Karen Blackmon from Mayo Clinic in Florida, on medRxiv. This study has not yet been peer reviewed. The full text of the study can be found on medRxiv.org. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.