Ultra-high field MRI implicates long COVID in brainstem damage
Researchers have used 7T MRI to demonstrate that former COVID-19 inpatients are susceptible to persistent brainstem abnormalities associated with long-haul COVID symptoms.
Because the imaging showed the irregularities affecting the brain’s respiratory pathways—including regions of the medulla oblongata, pons and midbrain—the team suggests high-field MRI deserves a role in long COVID treatment planning.
The study was conducted at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the U.K. and published Oct. 7 in Brain.
Corresponding author Catarina Rua and colleagues note conventional 3T MRI has brought back inconclusive findings on brainstem involvement in post-COVID hospitalization. Staying with the clinical hypothesis, they used 7T with an advanced technique, quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), for the present research.
The authors cite prior research establishing that symptoms of fatigue, dyspnea, breathlessness, cough and chest pain are common in the months after COVID-19 infection. More:
‘Brainstem changes may predispose to, or exacerbate, such symptoms over and above peripheral organ damage. This role in the etiology of long-term symptoms may arise because the brainstem provides a nexus between sensory and motor inputs, and between the spinal cord and the brain, with nuclei that are responsible for controlling the sleep-wake cycle, respiratory drive, cardiac and vasomotor regulation.’
In their discussion section, Rua and co-authors note the observed brainstem changes were more pronounced in patients with longer hospital stays, higher COVID severity, more prominent inflammatory responses and worse functional outcomes.
“Ultra-high field 7 T QSM was sensitive to these pathological changes in the brainstem, which could not be detected at standard clinical field strengths,” they add. “This approach can provide a valuable tool to better probe the brain for the long-term effects of COVID-19 and other potential SARS-CoV diseases, in order to inform acute and long-term therapeutic strategies to aid recovery.”
In a news release posted by Cambridge University, Rua says 7T scanners facilitate the visualization of subtle changes in the brainstem that are probably caused by the body’s long-term immune response to COVID infection.
“With 7T scanners, we can now measure these details,” Rua says in the release. “The active immune cells interfere with the ultra-high magnetic field, so that we’re able to detect how they are behaving.”
The study is posted in full for free.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.