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An analysis of brain scans from people formerly infected with COVID-19[female[feminine suggested a consistent pattern of gray matter loss over time, the researchers said.
Researchers affiliated with the University of Oxford published results ahead of the peer review this week at medRxiv, drawing on data from UK Biobank. They compared brain scans taken before the pandemic to scans taken about three years later on 394 coronavirus patients. and 388 matched witnesses. Further analysis included 15 hospitalized patients versus 379 people who had not been hospitalized.
“Our results therefore systematically concern the loss of gray matter in limbic cortical areas directly linked to the primary olfactory and taste system”, or areas of the brain linked to the perception of smell and taste, the authors wrote.
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The initial set of analyzes taken before the pandemic strengthens the results, according to the study’s authors, as they help differentiate the effects of COVID-19 disease from patients’ pre-existing health conditions.
The researchers said the three areas revealing “significant loss” in gray matter thickness and volume in COVID-19 patients were the “parahippocampal gyrus, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, and superior insula,” adding later that the “strongest deleterious effects of COVID -19 could be seen primarily in the left hemisphere.”
The results of the inpatient comparison “were not significant”, but the authors noted results “comparatively similar” to the larger group of coronavirus patients, “with, in addition, greater loss of gray matter. in the cingulate cortex, central nucleus of the amygdala and horned hippocampus ammonis. “
Additionally, the researchers noted “a high number of mild cases,” writing, “there is a fundamental need for more information on the brain effects of the disease, even in its mildest form.”
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The team stopped before establishing a causal relationship due to the study design, but always expressed confidence in the results. The study had its limitations, such as the lack of ventilation per patients based on factors such as oxygen saturation, due to unavailable data, while other limitations involved a “small number of participants of Asian descent, black or other ethnicity other than white ”, and other issues. involved deriving the COVID-19 status among all controls from test kits with varying accuracy.
“Using automated, objective and quantitative methods, we were able to uncover a coherent spatial pattern of gray matter loss in limbic regions of the brain forming an olfactory and taste network. Let these abnormal changes mark the spread of the disease. (or the virus itself) in the brain, which may foreshadow a future vulnerability of the limbic system, including memory, for these patients, remains to be studied, ”the study said.
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