COVID-19 patients who receive oxygen therapy or experience fever show reduced gray matter volume in the frontal-temporal network of the brain, according to a new study led by researchers at Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The study found lower gray matter volume in this brain region was associated with a higher level of disability among COVID-19 patients, even six months after hospital discharge.
Gray matter is vital for processing information in the brain and gray matter abnormality may affect how well neurons function and communicate. The study indicates gray matter in the frontal network could represent a core region for brain involvement in COVID-19, even beyond damage related to clinical manifestations of the disease, such as stroke.
The researchers, who are affiliated with the Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS), analyzed computed tomography scans in 120 neurological patients, including 58 with acute COVID-19 and 62 without COVID-19, matched for age, gender and disease. The work was done jointly with Enrico Premi and his colleagues at the University of Brescia in Italy, who provided the data for the study. They used source-based morphometry analysis, which boosts the statistical power for studies with a moderate sample size.
