According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), regarding one in five adults will develop long-term effects from COVID-19.
Neurological symptoms associated with long-term corona include difficulty thinking or concentrating, headache, sleep problems, dizziness, tingling sensation, change in sense of smell or taste, depression or anxiety, but studies have found that corona may also be associated with changes in the heart, lungs or other organs even in patients who They are asymptomatic.
As more people become infected and recover from SARS-CoV-2 infection, research is emerging, focusing on the lasting consequences of COVID-19.
In this study, researchers used magnetic susceptibility imaging to analyze the effects of COVID-19 on the brain.
Magnetic susceptibility refers to how magnetic certain elements, such as blood, iron, and calcium, are in an applied magnetic field.
This ability helps detect and monitor a range of neurological conditions including microbleeding, vascular abnormalities, brain tumors and stroke.
“Group-level studies have not previously focused on corona changes in magnetic sensitivity of the brain despite numerous case reports suggesting such abnormalities,” said Dr. Sapna S Mishra, a researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and co-author of the study. The study “sheds light on this new aspect of the neurological effects of Corona and reveals significant abnormalities in Corona survivors.”
The researchers analyzed highly sensitive MRI data from 46 patients who had recovered from COVID-19 and 30 healthy participants as a control group.
The imaging took place within six months of recovery. Among the patients, who have been suffering from Corona for a long time, the most common symptoms were fatigue, difficulty sleeping, lack of attention, and memory problems.
“Changes in sensitivity values of brain regions may be indicative of local structural changes,” said Dr. Mishra.
“The sensitivities might reflect the presence of abnormal amounts of paramagnetic compounds, while the reduced sensitivity might be due to changes such as calcification or a lack of paramagnetic particles that contain iron,” she added.
The MRI results showed that patients who recovered from Corona had significantly higher sensitivity values in the frontal lobe and brain stem compared to healthy controls.
Clusters obtained primarily in the frontal lobe also show gray matter differences.
“The areas of the brain that have undergone changes are associated with fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, depression, headaches and cognitive problems,” Dr. Mishra said.
Parts of the left inferior orbitofrontal gyrus are associated with language comprehension and production and the right inferior frontal gyrus, which controls various cognitive functions including attention, motor inhibition and imagery, as well as social cognitive processes.
The researchers also discovered a significant difference in the right diencephalon region of the brainstem, which is associated with several critical bodily functions, including coordinating with the endocrine system to secrete hormones, transmitting sensory and motor signals to the cerebral cortex, and regulating circadian rhythms.
Dr. Mishra explained that the results “indicate serious, long-term complications that can be caused by the coronavirus, even following months of recovery from infection,” explaining that “the current results are from a small time window, but are likely to show longitudinal time points across two years.” Whether there is any permanent change.
The researchers are currently conducting a study in the same group of patients to determine whether these brain abnormalities persist over a longer period of time.
