Abstract

Background:

Facing the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), most vulnerable individuals are seniors, especially those with comorbidities. More attention needs to been paid to the COVID-19 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is the top age-related neurodegenerative disease.

Objective:

Since it is unclear whether AD patients are prone to COVID-19 infection and progression to severe stages, we report for the first time a retrospective analysis of the clinical characteristics of AD patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

Methods:

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of the clinical data of 19 AD patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, compared with 23 non-AD COVID-19 patients admitted at the same time to our hospital. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, radiological, and treatment data were collected and analyzed.

Results:

Between AD patients and non-AD patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, the pneumonia severity was not significantly different. AD patients had a higher clustering onset than non-AD patients. The median duration from symptom onset to hospitalization were shorter in AD patients than non-AD patients, indicating the former were sent to the hospital by their family or from nursing home earlier than the later. The median duration from hospitalization to discharge seemed shorter in AD patients than non-AD patients. Dementia patients seemed less likely to report fatigue. It is noticed that more AD patients might have pericardial effusion than the non-AD patients.

Conclusion:

AD patients with COVID-19 were in milder conditions with a better prognosis than non-AD patients. AD patients who had adequate access to healthcare showed resilience to COVID-19 with shorter hospital stays.

中文翻译：

---

阿尔茨海默氏病对COVID-19的复原力

摘要

背景：

面对2019年发生的新型冠状病毒病（COVID-19），最脆弱的人群是老年人，尤其是合并症患者。需要进一步关注患有阿尔茨海默氏病（AD）的COVID-19患者，这是与年龄相关的最严重的神经退行性疾病。

目的：

由于尚不清楚AD患者是否容易发生COVID-19感染并发展为严重阶段，因此我们首次报道了对COVID-19肺炎AD患者临床特征的回顾性分析。

方法：

我们对19例AD患者的COVID-19肺炎的临床数据进行了回顾性队列研究，而同期我院收治的23例非AD COVID-19的患者对此进行了回顾性研究。收集并分析了人口统计学，临床，实验室，放射学和治疗数据。

结果：

在患有COVID-19肺炎的AD患者和非AD患者之间，肺炎的严重程度没有显着差异。AD患者比非AD患者具有更高的聚集发作。AD患者从症状发作到住院的中位持续时间比非AD患者短，这表明前者是由其家人或从疗养院送往医院的，早于后者。AD患者从住院到出院的中位时间似乎比非AD患者短。痴呆症患者似乎不太可能报告疲劳。注意到与非AD患者相比，更多的AD患者可能有心包积液。

结论：

与非AD患者相比，COVID-19的AD患者病情较轻，预后较好。能够获得足够医疗保健的AD患者表现出对COVID-19的适应力，住院时间更短。