Early Blood Tests May Predict Death in COVID-19 Patients with Neurological Issues
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Feb 22, 2026 1 hour, 57 minutes ago
Medical News: Doctors have long known that COVID-19 can be deadly, but a new study shows it may be especially dangerous for people already hospitalized with neurological problems such as stroke, dementia, epilepsy, brain tumors, or bleeding in the brain. Researchers found that a small set of routine blood markers taken very early—within hours of admission—can help predict who is most likely to die in hospital. This
Medical News report highlights why these tests matter and what they may reveal about severe COVID-19 in vulnerable patients.
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Blood markers flag high death risk in COVID-19 patients with neurological issues
Where The Researchers Were Based
The research team came from multiple institutions in Poland: the Department of Neurology at the National Medical Institute of the Ministry of Interior and Administration (Warsaw), the Department of Neurosurgery at the Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology (Warsaw), the Department of Didactics and Medical Simulation at the Medical University of Lublin (Lublin), the Department of Neurosurgery at the Postgraduate Medical Centre at Brodnowski Masovian Hospital (Warsaw), the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical University of Bialystok (Bialystok), the Department of Human Biology at Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education (Warsaw), the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Social and Medical Sciences in Lublin (Lublin), and the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical University of Lublin.
How The Study Was Done
The investigators followed 460 adult neurological inpatients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, either detected on admission or during hospitalization. Blood was collected within six hours of admission for the neurological condition. The team compared biomarker levels between survivors and those who died, then used statistical modeling to determine which markers independently predicted mortality.
The Four Biomarkers That Signaled Highest Danger
Several blood markers were tested, but four stood out as the strongest warning signs of death: IL-6, LDH, ferritin, and high-sensitivity troponin I. People who died had much higher levels of these markers than survivors, even when other factors were considered.
LDH was the most powerful predictor. It is often a sign of widespread tissue injury and can rise when the lungs and other organs are under intense stress. Ferritin, a protein linked to inflammation, also strongly tracked with worse outcomes, suggesting an overactive immune response. IL-6 is a key driver of inflammatory “storm” reactions, while troponin I signals heart strain or injury—showing that severe COVID-19 can damage far more than the lungs.
What This Means for Real Hospital Care
The study reported that 25 percent of the patients died in hospital. Those who required mechanical ventilation faced extremely high mortality, and their inflammatory markers were markedly elevated. The researchers stressed that these blood tests likely reflect overall disease severity across the b
ody, rather than inflammation limited to the brain itself. That matters because it suggests neurological patients may decline rapidly due to whole-body inflammation and organ stress, even if their main reason for admission was a brain-related condition.
Conclusion
These findings suggest hospitals can use early, widely available blood tests to identify neurological COVID-19 patients at greatest risk soon after admission. Monitoring IL-6, LDH, ferritin, and high-sensitivity troponin I could help doctors triage patients faster, intensify monitoring sooner, and anticipate sudden deterioration. Importantly, the results point to systemic inflammation and multi-organ injury as major drivers of death in this group, reinforcing the need for early risk stratification and timely supportive care.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Current Issues in Molecular Biology.
https://www.mdpi.com/1467-3045/48/2/228
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