Oculomotor, vestibular, reaction time, and cognitive tests as objective measures of neural deficits in pts post COVID-19 infection, 2022, Kevin Kelly

Objective: An alarming proportion (>30%) of patients affected by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) continue to experience neurological symptoms, including headache, dizziness, smell and/or taste abnormalities, and impaired consciousness (brain fog), after recovery from the acute infection. These symptoms are self-reported and vary from patient to patient, making it difficult to accurately diagnose and initiate a proper treatment course. Objective measures to identify and quantify neural deficits underlying the symptom profiles are lacking. This study tested the hypothesis that oculomotor, vestibular, reaction time, and cognitive (OVRT-C) testing using eye-tracking can objectively identify and measure functional neural deficits post COVID-19 infection.

Methods: Subjects diagnosed with COVID-19 ( n = 77) were tested post-infection with a battery of 20 OVRT-C tests delivered on a portable eye-tracking device (Neurolign Dx100). Data from 14 tests were compared to previously collected normative data from subjects with similar demographics. Post-COVID subjects were also administered the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI) for symptom evaluation.

Results: A significant percentage of post COVID-19 patients (up to 86%) scored outside the norms in 12 out of 14 tests, with smooth pursuit and optokinetic responses being most severely affected. A multivariate model constructed using stepwise logistic regression identified 6 metrics as significant indicators of post-COVID patients. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.89, the estimated specificity was 98% (with cutoff value of 0.5) and the sensitivity was 88%. There were moderate but significant correlations between NSI domain key variables and OVRT-C tests.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the feasibility of OVRT-C testing to provide objective measures of neural deficits in people recovering from COVID-19 infection. Such testing may serve as an efficient tool for identifying hidden neurological deficits post COVID-19, screening patients at risk of developing long COVID, and may help guide rehabilitation and treatment strategies.

https://read.qxmd.com/read/36188407...l-deficits-in-patients-post-covid-19-infectio

 

Both my wife and I have had specific vertigo problems after Covid twice now. I think this is an interesting report. It may not be so relevant to ME but it might provide some clues as to how to document something similar in ME.

 

My M.E onset was a sudden viral vertigo attack. I've had vertigo issues ever since (31 years). I think I might have contracted Covid a little over 2 years ago, it started with vestibular sickness and vertigo. I'm still dealing with this but it's seems to be resolving itself slowly. I have never had this type of sickness in 31 years. It's horrible.