Researchers from the Free University of Berlin have studied what specific changes occur in the body of those suffering from post-COVID fatigue. The results were not encouraging at all: it turned out that in such people there was a decrease in the size of various parts of the brain. Work in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet.
The study involved 50 patients from neurological outpatient clinics – all of them were undergoing rehabilitation following the coronavirus. Participants were 18-69 years old and underwent MRI, neuropsychiatric and cognitive testing during the experiment.
– 7-8 months following recovery, all participants complained of severe fatigue. As a clinical control group, we included 47 patients with multiple sclerosis suffering from fatigue, the scientists say.
Tests of “post-COVID” participants revealed changes in many parts of the brain, including the thalamus, putamen, and pallidum. Scientists have stated that in those who had been ill, deformations of the shape and a decrease in the volume of the left thalamus, shell and pallidum were recorded.
– Our research shows that Fatigue following COVID-19 is associated with distinct structural changes in the brain in subcortical centers that can be detected using MRI. It is important to note that this pattern of pathological changes occurred despite the fact that this cohort is relatively young, most patients were not hospitalized during acute infection, and were generally considered to be in good condition prior to COVID-19, the scientists concluded.