Post-COVID parkinsonism: A scoping review.

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Infectious Diseases
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Systematic organization of clinical features and outcomes of post-COVID parkinsonism is lacking.
• The correlation between COVID-19 and parkinsonism requires elucidation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and organize the clinical features and outcomes of post-COVID parkinsonism.
• To investigate potential correlations between COVID-19 and parkinsonism.

Main Methods:

• Scoping review of published cases of post-COVID parkinsonism.
• Searched PubMed and Embase databases.
• Extracted and objectively assessed patient data, clinical features, diagnoses, and outcomes.

Main Results:

• Analyzed 26 cases across 17 publications, identifying three syndromes: typical parkinsonian motor syndrome, parkinsonism with postural instability and gait disorder, and encephalopathy with parkinsonism.
• Diagnoses included Parkinson's disease (PD), probable PD, probable multiple system atrophy, acquired parkinsonism, and unclassified parkinsonism.
• Uncomplicated COVID-19 was more associated with PD, while encephalopathy with parkinsonism occurred across a spectrum of COVID-19 severity.

Conclusions:

• Patients with uncomplicated COVID-19 may present with PD and no encephalopathy; COVID-19's causative role is not demonstrated and may be coincidental.
• Encephalopathy with parkinsonism represents a distinct subset, suggesting a potentially different pathogenic role for SARS-CoV-2 infection.
• Findings provide a foundation for future research on post-COVID neurological sequelae.