Increased ethnicity and socioeconomic data collection required in stroke associated with COVID 19

For over 4 months, we have been in the privileged position of witnessing real-time trends in the literature via our weekly curation of The Neurology and Neuropsychiatry of COVID-19 blog.1 There is an emerging recognition of the need to report the severity and outcomes of neurological complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Stroke is a rare but well-documented complication, with most prevalence estimates varying slightly around 0.8%.2 It is therefore important to elucidate both those at risk of developing stroke and stratifying those at risk of more severe outcomes when stroke occurs.\n\nWe were greatly interested to read the letter by Dmytriw et al ,3 which highlighted potential racial disparities in outcomes from ischaemic stroke after COVID-19. Their novel study built on the hypothesis that black and minority ethnic (BAME) individuals have poorer outcomes from COVID-19 in general.4 An editorial commentary by Renieri5 further highlighted the need to elucidate mechanisms that may drive an interaction between stroke and COVID-19 to explain increased mortality in ethnic minorities. Previously also, Katz et al reported that patients with stroke with COVID-19 were more likely to be from a BAME population than patients with stroke without COVID-19. The potential over-representation of BAME individuals in COVID-19 stroke cohorts …