A major study on the impact of COVID-19 on the brain indicates even a mild case can significantly affect the complex organ, thinning tissue and disrupting functions that control smell and some cognitive abilities.
The study, described as the first detailed look into the neurological impacts of mild COVID-19, reveal a reduction in brain size and gray matter as well as tissue damage in areas linked to smell, taste and memory among those who had the coronavirus.
Researchers examined brain scans of 785 people in Great Britain — roughly half had contracted COVID-19 between March 2020 and April 2021 and half had not.
They compared scans that had been conducted before the infected participants, who ranged in age from 51 to 81, had contracted the virus with scans that were done nearly five months after the patients were diagnosed.
New scans on volunteers who did not have COVID-19 showed no marked changes, the researchers said.
The study covered those who had contracted COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic and did not involve variants such as delta and omicron, raising the question whether they affected the brain the same way.
The study was also conducted before the wide availability of vaccines, leaving open the question of what difference, if any, inoculation might make.
The researchers did not know whether the participants had long COVID, according to The New York Times, making it difficult to discern if that condition in which people have chronic health problems that continue long after the initial coronavirus infection — played any role in the changes of some patients’ brains.
Neurology experts call the results significant, although like the researchers who conducted the study they caution that further data needs to be collected before drawing definitive conclusions.
The brain study is just the latest on the lingering impact of COVID-19 on the body. In general, vaccinated people who contracted COVID-19 fared better overall than unvaccinated people
No comments:
Post a Comment