Severe coronavirus infections can cause inflammation in the brain’s ‘control centers’, causing damage that may explain the long-term breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety experienced by some patients, researchers say. That’s what it means.
High-resolution MRI scans of 30 people hospitalized with coronavirus early in the pandemic, before vaccines were introduced, showing the brain stem, a small but vital structure that controls vital body functions such as breathing, heart rate, and blood flow. Signs of inflammation were found. pressure.
Scan results show that severe coronavirus infections can trigger an immune response that inflames the brainstem, and the resulting damage can cause symptoms that last for months after patients are discharged from the hospital. Suggests.
Dr Katarina Rua, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, said: “The fact that we see abnormalities in parts of the brain associated with breathing strongly suggests that the long-term symptoms are a result of inflammation in the brainstem following coronavirus infection.” “I am doing so,” he said. and first author of this study.
The project began before researchers and public health officials knew about the long-lasting coronavirus. COVID-19 is a chronic post-viral disease that is estimated to affect two million people in England and Scotland and tens of millions of people worldwide. However, many people with long-term coronavirus infections report shortness of breath and fatigue, raising the possibility that brain inflammation may play a role in their symptoms.
“We did not study people who had COVID-19 for a long time, but we often see long-term symptoms of shortness of breath and fatigue, which may be associated with these very severe effects. The symptoms are similar to those experienced six months after admission to the hospital,” Rua said. “This raises the question of whether there are any changes in the brainstem in people who have had COVID-19 for a long time.”
Lua and colleagues imaged the patients’ brains using a powerful 7 Tesla MRI scanner. These revealed sufficient detail to confirm inflammation and ultrastructural abnormalities in brainstem tissue. All patients had been hospitalized with severe COVID-19 infections near the beginning of the pandemic.
The scans highlighted abnormalities related to inflammation in multiple parts of the brainstem that began several weeks after the patient was admitted to the hospital. A scan more than six months later showed the damage was still evident.
Damage to the brainstem may also contribute to the mental health problems some patients face after contracting the coronavirus. A study published in the journal Brain found that among the patients in the study, those with the highest levels of brainstem inflammation had the most severe physical symptoms and the highest levels of depression and anxiety.
“While this study does not conclusively prove the cause of prolonged COVID-19 infection, it points to one possible suspect for some of the symptoms experienced.” said Paul Mullins, a professor of neuroimaging at Bangor University. “It is not clear whether this will have a major impact on how we treat long-term COVID-19 infections once they occur, but perhaps there is a need to reduce the inflammatory response during early COVID-19 infection and response. It probably shows that there is.”
