Predictors of intrahospital mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 and cerebrovascular diseases: rapid systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) is a novel pandemic disease caused by the β-coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This disease affects primarily the respiratory organs, but the vascular system may also be compromised. COVID19 may lead to either coagulopathies or hemorrhagic disorders involving the central nervous system. Risk factors for a fatal outcome have been suggested but not completely elucidated. Objectives: This systematic review protocol aims to identify clinical, imaging and laboratory variables associated with intra-hospital mortality in patients with COVID19 and cerebrovascular disease. Materials and Methods: Studies will be retrieved from Web of Science, MEDLINE, Scopus, EBSCOhost, Ovid, Rayyan’s COVID-19 Open Research Dataset, and Google Scholar. Inclusion criteria will be observational studies or clinical trials describing patients with both COVID19 and cerebrovascular disease. Exclusion criteria will be studies whose patients remained hospitalized with no defined outcome (intrahospital mortality or discharge), studies written in languages different than English, published before 2019 or whose full-texts could not be retrieved. All demographic, laboratory and imaging variables will be extracted. Data synthesis will be presented in graphs, figures, and summary of findings tables. A global mortality rate will be calculated. A narrative synthesis will be included. A meta-analysis will be performed. For mortality rate and statistical synthesis, only studies reporting the main outcome (intra-hospital mortality or discharge) will be considered. Quality of the evidence will be assessed with the JBI Critical Appraisal tools. This protocol received no funding and isregistered in PROSPERO.