PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Novel MRI reveals brain changes in long-COVID patients

Novel MRI reveals brain changes in long-COVID patients
2023-11-22
(Press-News.org) CHICAGO – People with long COVID exhibit patterns of changes in the brain that are different from fully recovered COVID-19 patients, according to research being presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study comparing patients with long COVID to both a group without history of COVID-19 and a group that went through a COVID-19 infection but is subjectively unimpaired,” said one of the study’s lead authors, Alexander Rau, M.D., resident in the Departments of Neuroradiology and Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at University Hospital Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany.

After infection with COVID-19, as many as 10-25% of patients may develop a post-COVID condition commonly referred to as “long COVID.” People with long COVID may experience a wide variety of symptoms, including difficulty concentrating (“brain fog”), change in sense of smell or taste, fatigue, joint or muscle pain, shortness of breath, digestive symptoms, and more. These symptoms may persist for weeks, months, or—as is only now becoming apparent—years after COVID-19 infection.

However, the basis of this condition is poorly understood. Diffusion microstructure imaging (DMI), a novel MRI technique, is a promising approach to fill this gap.

DMI looks at the movement of water molecules in tissues. By studying how water molecules move in different directions and at various speeds, DMI can provide detailed information on the microstructure of the brain. It can detect even very small changes in the brain, not detectable with conventional MRI.

For this prospective, cross-sectional study, Dr. Rau and colleagues compared MRI brain scans of three groups: 89 patients with long COVID, 38 patients that had contracted COVID-19 but did not report any subjective long-term symptoms, and 46 healthy controls with no history of COVID-19.

The researchers first compared the cerebral macrostructure of these three groups to test for atrophy or any other abnormalities. Next, they used DMI to gain a deeper insight into the brain.

The three groups were compared to reveal group differences in the brain’s microstructure. DMI parameters were read for the gray matter in the brain. Additionally, whole brain analyses were employed to reveal the spatial distribution of alterations and associations with clinical data, including long-COVID symptoms like fatigue, cognitive impairment or impaired sense of smell.

The results showed no brain volume loss or any other lesions that might explain the symptoms of long COVID. However, COVID-19 infection induced a specific pattern of microstructural changes in various brain regions, and this pattern differed between those who had long COVID and those who did not.

“This study allows for an in vivo insight on the impact of COVID-19 on the brain,” Dr. Rau said. “Here, we noted gray matter alterations in both patients with long-COVID and those unimpaired after a COVID-19 infection. Interestingly, we not only noted widespread microstructural alterations in patients with long COVID, but also in those unimpaired after having contracted COVID-19.”

The findings also revealed a correlation between microstructural changes and symptom-specific brain networks associated with impaired cognition, sense of smell and fatigue.

 “Expression of post-COVID symptoms was associated with specific affected cerebral networks, suggesting a pathophysiological basis of this syndrome” Dr. Rau said.

The researchers hope to reexamine the patients in the future, recording both clinical symptoms and changes to the brain’s microstructure.

Despite these brain imaging findings, it remains unclear why some people develop long COVID while others do not, although previous studies have identified risk factors including female sex, older age, higher body mass index, smoking, preexisting comorbidities, and previous hospitalization or intensive care unit admission.

Co-authors are Jonas A. Hosp, M.D., Nils Schroter, M.D., Marco Reisert, Ph.D., Horst Urbach, M.D., Cornelius Weiller, M.D., and Elias Kellner, Ph.D.

###

Note: Copies of RSNA 2023 news releases and electronic images will be available online at RSNA.org/press23.

RSNA is an association of radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Illinois. (RSNA.org)

Editor’s note: The data in these releases may differ from those in the published abstract and those actually presented at the meeting, as researchers continue to update their data right up until the meeting. To ensure you are using the most up-to-date information, please call the RSNA Newsroom at 1-312-791-6610.

For patient-friendly information on brain MRI, visit RadiologyInfo.org.

END


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Novel MRI reveals brain changes in long-COVID patients Novel MRI reveals brain changes in long-COVID patients 2 Novel MRI reveals brain changes in long-COVID patients 3

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

AI identifies non-smokers at high risk for lung cancer

AI identifies non-smokers at high risk for lung cancer
2023-11-22
CHICAGO – Using a routine chest X-ray image, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool can identify non-smokers who are at high risk for lung cancer, according to a study being presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death. The American Cancer Society estimates about 238,340 new cases of lung cancer in the United States this year and 127,070 lung cancer deaths. Approximately 10-20% of lung cancers occur in “never-smokers” – people who have never smoked cigarettes ...

This sea worm’s butt swims away, and now scientists know how

This sea worm’s butt swims away, and now scientists know how
2023-11-22
A research team, led by Professor Toru Miura from the University of Tokyo, shows how the expression of developmental genes in the Japanese green syllid worms, Megasyllis nipponica, helps form their swimming reproductive unit called stolon.     Life always finds ways to surprise us. The presence of a unique reproductive mechanism of some annelid worms or segmented worms is one such surprise. In a process called stolonization, the posterior body part with gonads of the syllid worm detaches from its original body. The detached part is called the stolon, and it is full of gametes (eggs or sperms). The stolon swims around by itself and spawns when it ...

New study on experience of adopted people as they become parents

2023-11-22
Becoming a parent is a key turning point for adopted people Parenting is always challenging, but for adopted people becoming a mum or dad can be extra demanding, as well as extra special – according to research from the University of East Anglia. A new study is the first in to investigate the lived experiences of adopted people in the UK as they become parents. It finds that they are affected by issues that link back to their adoption and to difficult experiences in their past – related to loss, rejection, abuse and neglect. Because of these ...

Anti-rheumatic drugs could prevent thyroid disease

Anti-rheumatic drugs could prevent thyroid disease
2023-11-22
Anti-rheumatic drugs used for rheumatoid arthritis might prevent the development of autoimmune thyroid disease, according to a new observational study by researchers from Karolinska Institutet published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.    It is well known that patients with rheumatoid arthritis are at increased risk of autoimmune thyroid diseases such as Hashimoto's disease and Graves' disease. While patients with RA are usually treated with immunomodulatory drugs that affect the immune system, such drugs are rarely used in autoimmune thyroid diseases. Instead, such patients are treated with thyroid hormone to compensate for the changes in normal ...

Does spaceflight increase men’s risk of erectile dysfunction?

2023-11-22
During missions into space, astronauts are exposed to high levels of galactic cosmic radiation and weightlessness. Simulation experiments in male rats indicated that these aspects of spaceflight can negatively affect vascular tissues relevant to erectile dysfunction, even after a period of long-term recovery. The research, which is published in The FASEB Journal, indicated that vascular alterations are induced by relatively low doses of galactic cosmic radiation and to a lesser extent simulated weightlessness, primarily through increases in oxidative stress. Treatment with different antioxidants could counter some of these ...

What are the effects of workforce automation across race and gender in the United States?

2023-11-22
Advances in areas such as robotics and artificial intelligence enable the automation of a range of occupational tasks, leading to fundamental changes in the nature of work. New research published in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology indicates that the effects of job automation vary across race and gender, and without targeted interventions, will likely result in increasing inequality. The research analyzes two distinct measures of automation job displacement risk for more than 1.4 million Americans across 385 occupations. The findings show that the intersection of race and gender has a significant effect on automation risks. For example, ...

Has the COVID-19 pandemic compromised bone health?

2023-11-22
Results from a study published in the American Journal of Human Biology suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has had negative effects on bone tissue—including both bone mineral density in the forearm and total bone mineral content. The study by investigators at Comenius University, in Slovakia, included 387 young adults whose bone health measurements were taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and 386 whose measurements were taken from September 2020 to November 2022 during the pandemic. Individuals participated in the study only once, either before or during the pandemic. Certain lifestyle changes during the pandemic may have contributed ...

Does stem cell transplantation benefit patients with knee osteoarthritis?

2023-11-22
Cell therapy represents a potential regenerative treatment for osteoarthritis. A recent analysis of all relevant published studies indicates that stem cell transplantation from different sources is effective for treating knee osteoarthritis, the most prevalent chronic joint disease. The review and meta-analysis, which is published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, included 16 studies involving 875 patients with knee osteoarthritis (441 in the stem cell transplantation group and 434 in the control group). Stem cell treatment was associated with significant reductions in patient-reported pain from the third month onwards. The most significant pain relief at different postoperative months ...

Can sound stimulation lessen long-term concussion symptoms?

2023-11-22
New research indicates that acoustic stimulation of the brain may ease persistent symptoms in individuals who experienced mild traumatic brain injury in the past. The study, which is published in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, included 106 military service members, veterans, or their spouses with persistent symptoms after mild traumatic brain injury 3 months to 10 years ago. Participants were randomized 1:1 to receive 10 sessions of engineered tones linked to brainwaves (intervention), or random ...

New partnership between ResearchGate and Pensoft to drive readership and visibility of open access journals

New partnership between ResearchGate and Pensoft to drive readership and visibility of open access journals
2023-11-22
ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and Pensoft, an independent open access academic publisher known worldwide for its cutting-edge publishing tools and workflows, today announced a new partnership that will see a set of Pensoft’s open access journals increase their reach and visibility through ResearchGate – increasing access and engagement with its 25 million researcher members.   Pensoft is a fully open access publisher, providing high-quality end-to-end services to its own and third-party scientific journals via its in-house developed scholarly publishing platform ARPHA. As part of this new partnership, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Studying sex-specific pain levels in wheelchair users

UChicago Medicine performs first-in-Illinois procedure to treat bladder leaks

Previously unknown Neolithic society in Morocco discovered: shining light on North Africa’s role in Mediterranean prehistory

Study finds PrEP use among gay and bisexual men in Ontario linked to higher STI rates

Technology-assisted health coaching intervention does not improve weight loss in veterans and high-risk patients

Underserved patients reduce blood pressure and heart disease risk using remote monitoring program

The HOMER study evolves to adapt opioid treatment research amid COVID-19 challenges

High-sensitivity troponin shows promise in diagnosing acute coronary syndrome in primary care settings

September/October Annals of Family Medicine Tip Sheet

Risk model identifies advanced cancer trial patients at highest risk for acute care use

Robust family medicine residency programs help residents meet scholarly output requirements

Using transparent capsules in dry powder inhalers could significantly improve medication delivery

Family physicians in rural hospitals associated with lower cesarean rates and safer maternal care culture

Long COVID patients seek better collaboration with health care professionals

EHR messaging before first visit fosters a stronger patient-physician connection

SETI AIR announces Cosmic Consciousness residency recipients

Australian crater could offer fresh insight into Earth’s geological history

New study raises questions about validity of standard model of solar flares

Paving the way for new treatments

Dream discovery: Melatonin's key role in REM sleep revealed

Research quantifying “nociception” could help improve management of surgical pain

How cranes navigate their complex world

New origami-inspired system turns flat-pack tubes into strong building materials

Low gravity in space travel found to weaken and disrupt normal rhythm in heart muscle cells

New approach to defibrillation may improve cardiac arrest outcomes

UTA undergraduate researcher wins state honor

Novel method detects biological oxidant derived from CO2 in cells

American Cancer Society experts presenting key research at 2024 ASCO Quality Care Symposium

New research identifies critical gaps in mental health care for adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Advances in theranostics take center stage at SNMMI 2024 Therapeutics Conference

[Press-News.org] Novel MRI reveals brain changes in long-COVID patients