Some hospitalized patients with COVID experience non-convulsive seizures, which may put them at a higher death risk, suggests a new study.

The study, published in the Annals of Neurology, suggests that neurological complications may be an important contributor to the morbidity and mortality associated with coronavirus.

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"There is increasing evidence that non-convulsive seizures can damage the brain and make outcomes worse, similar to convulsions," Westover added.

For the study, the team analyzed medical information for 197 hospitalized patients with COVID who underwent electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring — tests that detect electrical activity of the brain using small metal discs attached to the scalp.

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The EEG tests detected nonconvulsive seizures in 9.6 percent of patients, some of whom had no prior neurological problems.

Patients who had seizures needed to be hospitalized for a longer time, and they were four times more likely to die while in the hospital than patients without seizures — suggesting that neurological complications may be an important contributor to the higher death risk, morbidity and mortality associated with COVID. (IANS/KB)