Brain Frontal-Lobe Misery Perfusion in COVID-19 ICU Survivors: An MRI Pilot Study

• DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14010094
• Publication Date: 2024-01-18T16:28:46Z
• Authors: Jie Song; Shivalika Khanduja; Hannah Rando; Wen Shi; Kaisha Hazel; George Paul Pottanat; Ebony Jones; Cuimei Xu; Zhiyi Hu; Doris Lin; Sevil Yasar; Hanzhang Lu; Sung-Min Cho; Dengrong Jiang
• Keywords: Frontal lobe

Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) is highly prevalent. Critically ill patients requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission are at a higher risk of developing PCS. The mechanisms underlying PCS still under investigation and may involve microvascular damage in the brain. Cerebral misery perfusion, characterized by reduced cerebral blood flow (CBF) elevated oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) affected brain areas, has been demonstrated cerebrovascular diseases such as carotid occlusion stroke. This pilot study aimed to examine whether ICU survivors exhibited regional indicating damage. In total, 7 (4 female, 20–77 years old) 19 age- sex-matched healthy controls (12 22–77 were studied. average interval between MRI scan was 118.6 ± 30.3 days. OEF measured using recently developed technique, accelerated T2-relaxation-under-phase-contrast MRI, while CBF assessed pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling. (β = 5.21 2.48%, p 0.047) relative −0.083 0.025, 0.003) frontal lobe compared controls. conclusion, perfusion observed survivors, suggesting this critical area for high-level cognitive functions that known manifest deficits Physiological biomarkers provide new tools improve understanding treatment