WA recent study, published in March 2023 in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, highlights the importance of frequent cognitive tests after coronavirus infection, given the high frequency of deficits after Covid-19. The results of this study point to the need to prepare transitional care and long-term follow-up for patients hospitalized for severe coronavirus.

These were some of the main findings of the research carried out by a group formed with a focus on scientific investigations into Covid-19 at the Complexo do Hospital das Clínicas (HC) and at the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP). Conducted by the main and corresponding authors: Profa. Claudia Kimie Suemoto, Associate Professor of the Discipline of Geriatrics at the Department of Internal Medicine at FMUSP and Dr. Márlon Juliano Romero Aliberti, researcher at the Laboratory of Medical Research on Aging (LIM/66) at HCFMUSP.

Data from 1105 adults admitted with severe Covid-19 at HCFMUSP were analyzed. All patients were followed up for one year after hospital discharge and had telephone interviews every three months. During the telephone calls, cognitive tests were included, questions about visits to the emergency room, new hospitalizations, persistence of neurological symptoms, such as headache, difficulty in smelling and tasting, fatigue and muscle pain, in addition to investigating the state of physical frailty of the patient.

Through data obtained during hospitalization due to Covid-19 and post-discharge data, it was possible to identify three patterns of cognitive trajectories over a year after hospital discharge. The commentator is Dr. Natalia Gomes Gonçalves, postdoctoral fellow at FMUSP, and one of the researchers involved in the study: “absence of cognitive impairment in 69% of patients; short-term cognitive impairment, lasting up to one month after hospital discharge (20% of patients); and persistent cognitive impairment, which lasted throughout the one-year post-hospital discharge follow-up (11% of patients)”.

Dr. Natalia Gonçalves also completes and says that the main factors related to post-discharge cognitive impairment were: “advanced age, female sex, diagnosis of dementia or memory complaints prior to the diagnosis of Covid-19, previous physical frailty, high platelet count and confusion during hospitalization”. In addition, hospital admissions and the development of post-discharge frailty due to the coronavirus were also associated with a higher risk of cognitive impairment.

Access the publication at https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.12993