Trial Report Persistent fatigue in post-acute COVID syndrome is associated with altered T1 MRI texture in subcortical structures, 2024, Churchill

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166432824002018

Behavioural Brain Research
Available online 9 May 2024, 115045


Research article
Persistent fatigue in post-acute COVID syndrome is associated with altered T1 MRI texture in subcortical structures: a preliminary investigation

Nathan W. Churchill, Eugenie Roudaia, J. Jean Chen, Allison Sekuler, Fuqiang Gao, Mario Masellis, Benjamin Lam, Ivy Cheng, Chris Heyn, Sandra E. Black, Bradley J. MacIntosh, Simon J. Graham, Tom A. Schweizer,

Received 20 February 2024, Revised 3 May 2024, Accepted 6 May 2024, Available online 9 May 2024.


https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115045Get rights and content

ABSTRACT

Post-acute COVID syndrome (PACS) is a global health concern and is often associated with debilitating symptoms.

Post-COVID fatigue is a particularly frequent and troubling issue, and its underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood.

One potential contributor is micropathological injury of subcortical and brainstem structures, as has been identified in other patient populations.

Texture-based analysis (TA) may be used to measure such changes in anatomical MRI data.

The present study develops a methodology of voxel-wise TA mapping in subcortical and brainstem regions, which is then applied to T1-weighted MRI data from a cohort of 48 individuals who had PACS (32 with and 16 without ongoing fatigue symptoms) and 15 controls who had cold and flu-like symptoms but tested negative for COVID-19.

Both groups were assessed an average of 4-5 months post-infection.

There were no significant differences between PACS and control groups, but significant differences were observed between those with and without fatigue symptoms in the PACS group.

This included reduced texture energy and increased entropy, along with reduced texture correlation, cluster shade and profile in the putamen, pallidum, thalamus and brainstem.

These findings provide new insights into the neurophysiological mechanisms that underlie PACS, with altered tissue texture as a potential biomarker of this debilitating condition.

 

Worse and worse.
Almost makes you think about dusting off that old saying..Oh how does it go now…’An ounce of prevention is better than a cure that doesn’t exist’ huh?