To explore the clinical characteristics and prognosis of COVID‐19 patients with cerebral stroke. A total of 2,474 COVID‐19 patients from February 10th to March 24th, 2020 were admitted and treated in two branches (Optic Valley and Sino‐French New City branch) of the Tongji Hospital. Data on the clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters and prognosis of COVID‐19 patients with or without cerebral stroke were collected and comparatively analysed. Of the 2,474 COVID‐19 patients, 113 (4.7%) patients had cerebral stroke and 25 (1.0%) patients had new‐onset stroke. Eighty‐eight (77.9%) patients in the previous‐stroke group had cerebral ischaemia, while 25 (22.1%) patients in the new‐onset stroke group had cerebral ischaemia. Most COVID‐19 patients with stroke were elderly with more comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes and heart diseases than patients without stroke. Laboratory examinations showed hypercoagulation and elevated serum parameters such as IL‐6, cTnI, NT pro‐BNP and BUN. Consciousness disorders, a long disease course and poor prognosis were also more commonly observed in stroke patients. The mortality rate of stroke patients was almost double (12.4% vs. 6.9%) that of patients without stroke. In addition, age, male sex and hypertension were independent predictors for new cerebral stroke in COVID‐19 patients. In conclusion, the high risk of new‐onset stroke must be taken into consideration when treating COVID‐19 patients with an elderly age combined with a history of hypertension. These patients are more vulnerable to multiorgan dysfunction and an overactivated inflammatory response, in turn leading to an unfavourable outcome and higher mortality rate.

To investigate the correlation between vertebrobasilar dolichoectasia (VBD) and posterior cranial fossa (PCF) space. The medical records and imaging data of patients with VBD and control group were collected from June 2021 to June 2022 in the Third People's Hospital of Hubei Province. All patients with VBD were graded by head and neck CTA. The grading index was divided into two parts, including vertebral artery bifurcation height and offset degree. Taking the healthy adult subjects of matched age as the control group. The linear volume of posterior cranial fossa was measured by median sagittal CTA images. Middle clivus length, transverse diameter of occipital foramen, supraoccipital length, sagittal diameter of posterior cranial fossa and height diameter of posterior cranial fossa was measured. The volume of the PCF was calculated by 3Dslice software. The relationship between VBD and the volume of PCF was analyzed by SPSS23.0. The height diameter of posterior cranial fossa, sagittal diameter of posterior cranial fossa, transverse diameter of occipital foramen, clival length, supraoccipital length and space volume of PCF were 34.78 ± 3.67 mm, 85.49 ± 4.15 mm, 30.89 ± 3.94 mm, 44.53 ± 5.36 mm, 45.21 ± 6.45 mm, 171.08 ± 15.81 cm³ in the case group. The linear volume of PCF and space volume of PCF were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the independent risk factors of VBD were height diameter of PCF, sagittal diameter of PCF, transverse diameter of occipital foramen, clival length, supraoccipital length and space volume of posterior cranial fossa. According to the classification, the height and diameter of PCF in grade 1 was significantly smaller than that in grade 2 VBD (P < 0.05). Under the standard of BA bifurcation degree, there were significant differences between different grades of VBD patients and age (P < 0.05). The smaller volume of PCF may leading the greater possibility of VBD. Under the classification of VBD, the older, the longer the course of disease is, the higher degree of VBD classification is.