A 70-year-old male presents to the hospital with a covid-19 diagnosis and a left middle cerebral artery infarct.

Peer #1 :Lydia Cole

The Article

I chose the article “Coronavirus Disease 2019-Related Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Case Report”. This particular topic interested me because I currently work in a Neurologic ICU setting. I noticed an increased number of patients developing strokes after being diagnosed with COVID-19. The coronavirus pandemic caused catastrophic health emergencies all around the world and to this day is still plaguing the nation. Individuals with covid-19 died, live with residual deficits from infection, or live deficit-free. In this case study, a 70-year-old male presents to the hospital with a covid-19 diagnosis and a left middle cerebral artery infarct. This gentleman had no comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, tobacco, or alcohol use that would’ve precipitated this stroke. The patient quickly deteriorated, leading to hypoxemic respiratory failure and intubation. He also was not eligible for thrombolytic or neuro-interventional therapy. The family eventually withdrew care and made him comfortable (Umar et al., 2020). It is hypothesized that SARS-COV-2 binds to angiotensin-converting enzyme receptors, leading to a cytokine storm and a hypercoagulable state (Umar et al., 2020). The hypercoagulable state leads to clot formation and inevitably ends in a stroke. It intrigues me that a virus like covid-19 can have lasting effects on young, healthy individuals long after the infectious period ends.

The Database

Throughout our degree program at Walden, it will be vital to know how to find and verify peer-reviewed, scholarly articles. Peer review is a type of academic review where scholars in the specified fields review articles, edit, and publish them for evaluation in varying journals (Walden University Library, n.d.-b). I utilized the ProQuest database to find my article. My difficulty in finding this article was more of a brainstorming issue as opposed to finding a scholarly-peer reviewed article. At first, I didn’t know what to search for. I knew that I wanted to find an article about neurological studies since that pertains to my current field. I initially searched the Cinahl and Medline database but then had difficulty accessing full-text articles as some were not available to Walden.

When searching for my topic, I used Boolean phrases such as stroke OR cerebral vascular accident AND coronavirus OR covid-19. I learned that using Boolean words (AND, OR, NOT) can narrow, expand, or omit items in your research and make it more efficient to find precisely what you’re looking for. I also found it helpful to limit my results when performing my initial search to find what I needed (Walden University Library, n.d.-a). The limits I utilized in my search through ProQuest were full text, peer-reviewed, sourced from scholarly journals, and written in English. By using all these tips, I shortly found my article on the first page of my search list.

I would recommend this database to colleagues and will be using it for future use. ProQuest was very user-friendly, and I had no issues accessing full-text articles. I find it convenient that Walden offers so many different databases for students to conduct their scholarly research. Walden’s online library will be a vital tool in becoming a knowledgeable, successful student.

References

Umar, F., Sohaib, S., Sundas, K., Lohano, A. K., & Saurabh, K. (2020). Coronavirus Disease 2019-Related Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Case Report. Cureus, 12(9) http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10310

Walden University Library. (n.d.-a). Instructional media: Fundamental of library research. https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/instructionalmedia/researchfundamentals

Walden University Library. (n.d.-b). Verify peer review: Home. https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/verifypeerreview