Imaging and clinical outcomes of COVID-19- vs. non-COVID-19-related cerebral venous thrombosis.

Background: Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a rare but serious subtype of stroke. Several studies have reported an increased incidence of CVT after either COVID-19 (CoV19) infection or vaccination; however, data on clinical characteristics, the radiological profiles, and the outcomes of these patients with CVT as the only severe symptom of a CoV19 infection or vaccination compared to patients with non-CoV19-related CVT are still scarce. Methods: We performed a retrospective monocentric study over 10 years (January 2013-December 2022) that included consecutive patients with a confirmed diagnosis of CVT based on imaging of the cerebral venous system. Patients were categorized as CoV19 CVT (either due to infection or post-vaccination) or non-CoV19 CVT and compared regarding demographics, risk factors, clinical characteristics, and imaging findings as well as outcome (at discharge, at 6 months, and last follow-up). Furthermore, sub-analyses were performed to compare CoV19-infection-related-CVT and CoV19-vaccination-related-CVT patients. Results: Overall, 122 patients with suspected CVT were identified. After excluding patients with missing data ( Conclusion: In this monocentric study, there was no signal for a worse severity of CoV19 CVT compared to non-CoV19 CVT regarding clinical characteristics, imaging profile, or outcomes in patients with CVT only. Larger observational data with sophisticated workups of CVT patients are needed to confirm our results.