High Incidence and Unique Features of Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis in Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19 Infection

Background: Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) secondary to vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia is an extremely rare side effect of adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccines. CVST incidence associated with COVID-19 itself has not been widely reported. We report the incidence of CVST in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first year of the pandemic. Methods: We analyzed de-identified electronic medical records of a retrospective cohort of patients admitted with COVID-19 to >200 hospitals between March 2020 and March 2021. We used International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes and natural language processing extracts to identify patients with a new CVST diagnosis during COVID-19 hospitalization. The primary outcome was CVST incidence in hospitalized, COVID-19-positive patients. Secondary outcomes included CVST incidence and mortality. Incidence rates were calculated using the DerSimonian-Laird estimator method. Results: Ninety-one thousand seven hundred twenty-seven patients were evaluated; 22 had new CVST diagnoses by electronic medical record review. CVST incidence in the hospitalized COVID-19 cohort was 231 per 1 000 000 person-years (95% CI, 152.1-350.8). Females<50 had the highest incidence overall (males <50: 378.4 [142-1008.2]; females<50: 796.5 [428.6-1480.4]). In patients >= 50 years old, males had a higher estimated CVST incidence (males >= 50: 130.5 [54.3-313.6]; females >= 50: 88.8 [28.6-275.2]). Older patients (45.5% of patients >= 50 versus 0% of <50 years of age, P=0.012) and males (44.4% of males versus 7.7% of females, P=0.023) were more likely to die in hospital. Conclusions: CVST incidence in COVID-19-positive hospitalized patients is high. Advanced age and male gender were associated with likelihood of death in hospital; further studies are required to confirm these findings.

Automated summary

This study reports the incidence of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) in COVID-19-positive hospitalized patients. The study found a high risk of CVST in COVID-19 patients, and older age and male gender were associated with a higher likelihood of death in hospital.