It is well known that COVID-19 commonly affects the respiratory system in patients. However, symptoms also include neurological symptoms, such as headache and loss of the sense of smell. In fact, reports from Wuhan in China indicated that there was CNS involvement in just over one third of patients hospitalized with severe infection.
In two recent papers, COVID-19 patients were analyzed for neuronal injury using neurofilament light chain protein (NfL), which is a common prognostic biomarker for various neurological disorders. NfL can be used to reliably detect CNS injury and can also be used as a prognostic marker of clinical outcome.