https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-024-01448-0
Regular Article
Structural and functional changes in the brain during post-COVID syndrome: neuropsychological and MRI study
1
Department of Neurology and Manual Medicine of the Faculty of Postgraduate Education, Pavlov First Saint Petersburg State Medical University, L’va Tolstogo Str. 6-8, 197022, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2
Department of Computer Science, LETI Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University, Professora Popova Str. 5, 197022, Saint Petersburg, Russia
3
Department of Neurology, Pavlov First Saint Petersburg State Medical University, L’va Tolstogo Str. 6-8, 197022, Saint Petersburg, Russia
4
Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University under the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 2 Litovskaya Str, 194100, Saint Petersburg, Russia
5
Dzhanelidze Saint Petersburg Research Institute of Emergency Medicine, Budapestskaya Str., 3, Lit. A, 192242, Saint Petersburg, Russia
6
Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, Almazov National Medical Research Centre, 2 Akkuratova Street, 197341, Saint Petersburg, Russia
7
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, 14 A. Nevskogo Ul., 236016, Kaliningrad, N.S., Russia
8
Hospital for Veterans of Wars, 21, K. 2 Narodnaya Str., 193079, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Received:
23
September
2024
Accepted:
12
December
2024
Published online:
7
January
2025
COVID-19 is an infectious disease that has rapidly spread with a very wide coverage, which led to a pandemic affecting the whole world. The consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection after the acute respiratory phase, long-COVID syndrome, and post-COVID syndrome cause significant public health concerns. To identify structural, functional, and neuropsychological biomarkers of brain damage in post-COVID syndrome. A total of 24 patients with post-COVID syndrome who had mild COVID-19 were examined. Neuropsychological testing included MoCA, Clock Drawing Test, Head’s tests, verbal association test, FAB, comparative constructions comprehension test, “barrel and box” test, the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, MFI-20, HADS. Structural, functional and diffusion tensor MRI of the brain was used in combination with neuropsychological testing as well. Mild and moderate novel CoV disease (SARS)-CoV-2 leads to atrophy of the accessory nucleus on both sides. However, clinically significant is the decrease in the volume of the dominant nucleus, which is associated with a decrease in functional connectivity in the structures of the DMN and VN as well as an increase in FA in the conductors of the white matter of the brain that connect predominantly the cognitive zones of the cortex and subcortical nuclei, which possibly reflects the recruitment of new tracts in the interests of the affected functions. A decrease in the volume of the left accessory nucleus, a compensatory increase in FA in the brain tracts connecting key cognitive centers, and errors in performing the Head test can be considered to be the biomarkers of the post-COVID syndrome development. Carrying out multimodal MRI of the brain with neuropsychological testing allows for a comprehensive approach to the issue of both identifying the features of pathogenesis and clarifying the topical diagnosis of post-COVID neurological disorders.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
