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COVID-19 Incidence and Death Rate in Epilepsy: Too Early to Tell?

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Incidence and Case Fatality Rate of COVID-19 in Patients With Active Epilepsy Cabezudo-Garcia P, Ciano-Petersen NL, Mena-Vazquez N, et al. Neurology. 2020;95(10):e1417-e1425. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000010033 Objective: This article estimates the incidence and… Click to show full abstract

Incidence and Case Fatality Rate of COVID-19 in Patients With Active Epilepsy Cabezudo-Garcia P, Ciano-Petersen NL, Mena-Vazquez N, et al. Neurology. 2020;95(10):e1417-e1425. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000010033 Objective: This article estimates the incidence and fatality of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and identifies potential risk factors for fatality in patients with active epilepsy. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study of patients with active epilepsy and COVID-19. A control group was used to compare the cumulative incidence and case fatality rate (CFR). The main outcomes of the study were cumulative incidence, defined as number of patients with active epilepsy and COVID-19 admitted to an emergency department divided by the total number of patients with epilepsy at risk, and CFR based on the number of deaths during the enrollment period. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate risk factors for fatality in patients with active epilepsy. Results: Of the 1537 patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, 21 (1.3%) had active epilepsy. The cumulative incidence (95% CI) of COVID-19 in patients with epilepsy was higher (1.2% [0.6-2.4]) compared to the population without epilepsy (0.5% [0.5-0.5]). In reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction–positive patients, there were no significant differences in CFR in patients with active epilepsy compared to patients without epilepsy (33.3% vs 8.3%; P = .266). Of the 21 patients with active epilepsy, 5 (23%) died. In multivariate analysis, the factor associated with fatality in patients with active epilepsy was hypertension (odds ratio [OR] 2.8 [95% CI: 1.3-21.6]). In another model, age (OR: 1.0 [95% CI: 1.0-1.1]) and epilepsy (OR: 5.1 [95% CI: 1.3-24.0]) were associated with fatality during hospitalization. Conclusion: COVID-19 cumulative incidence was higher in patients with active epilepsy. Epilepsy was associated with fatality during hospitalization. Hypertension was associated with fatality in patients with epilepsy.

Keywords: incidence; patients active; active epilepsy; covid; fatality

Journal Title: Epilepsy Currents
Year Published: 2021

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