No evidence for neuronal damage or astrocytic activation in cerebrospinal fluid of Neuro-COVID-19 patients with long-term persistent headache, 2023

No evidence for neuronal damage or astrocytic activation in cerebrospinal fluid of Neuro-COVID-19 patients with long-term persistent headache

Abstract

Headache is one of the most common neurological manifestations of COVID-19, but it is unclear whether chronic headache as a symptom of Post-COVID-19 is associated with ongoing CNS damage. We compared cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of markers of CNS damage and inflammation in Post-COVID-19 patients with persistent headache to hospitalized acute COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms and to non-COVID-19 disease-controls. CSF levels of neurofilament light chain, Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase L1 and Tau were similar in patients with persistent headache in post-COVID-19 compared to acute COVID-19 patients and all control groups. Levels of glial fibrillary astrocytic protein were lower in patients with persistent headache in post-COVID-19 compared to some control groups of patients with neurological disease. Therefore, our pilot study of CSF markers indicates that persistent post-COVID-19 headache is not a sign of underlying neuronal damage or glial activation.

https://neurolrespract.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42466-023-00277-1

 

Sample sizes are extremely small, but seem decently chosen with different control groups.

 

Yes it seems that there were only 7 patients with persistent postCOVID-19 headache. IMHO it should be required the mention the sample size in the abstract.