TY - JOUR T1 - Neurological diseases and risk of mortality in patients with COVID-19 and SARS: a territory-wide study in Hong Kong JF - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry JO - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry SP - 1356 LP - 1358 DO - 10.1136/jnnp-2021-326286 VL - 92 IS - 12 AU - Florence Sin Ying Fan AU - Terry C F Yip AU - Brian Yiu AU - Bonnie Lam AU - Lisa Au AU - Alexander Yuk-lun Lau AU - Bonaventure Ip AU - Yannie Soo AU - Thomas W Leung AU - Timothy Li AU - Grace Lui AU - Grace L H Wong AU - Vincent Mok Y1 - 2021/12/01 UR - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/92/12/1356.abstract N2 - COVID-19 is caused by ß-coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Recent reports suggested that neurological diseases, in particular stroke, dementia and advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD), were important predictors of COVID-19-related mortality.1–3 SARS-CoV was another ß-coronavirus which resulted in the epidemic of SARS in late 2002 to early 2003. Apparently, it remained quiescent since 2004 but its re-emergence is possible. Patients with SARS at advanced age and with multiple comorbidities were at higher risk of mortality.4 Given mortality rates and predictors may vary with regions, we investigated the impact of pre-existing neurological diseases on the mortality of patients with COVID-19 and SARS in Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Studying the impact of neurological diseases on COVID-19 and SARS mortalities would have important implications on possible future pandemics caused by coronaviruses. We believe the data would provide guidance on resource allocation and healthcare policy making. With the availability of effective vaccination against COVID-19, the finding could implicate on the prioritisation of vaccination for patients with chronic neurological diseases.Study design and data retrievalWe performed a territory-wide retrospective cohort study using data from the Clinical Data Analysis and Reporting System (CDARS) under the management of the Hospital Authority, Hong Kong. CDARS is an electronic healthcare database that covers the patients’ demographic, death, diagnoses, procedures, drug prescription and dispensing history, and laboratory results from all public hospitals and clinics in Hong Kong. It represents in-patient data of about 80%–90% of the 7.49 million population in Hong Kong. All confirmed patients with COVID-19 and SARS were reported to the Department of Health and hospitalised in public hospitals in Hong Kong. Patients were anonymised in CDARS to ensure confidentiality.SubjectsConsecutive patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 from 23 January 2020 to 31 July 2020 and patients with SARS from March to June 2003 were identified by International … ER -