Microstructural and susceptibility alterations in white matter and cerebellum are linked to fatigue and cognitive dysfunction in long COVID
Motivation: The biological mechanisms of impactful symptoms of the long-COVID syndrome such as fatigue and cognitive dysfunction, are still unknown. Goal(s): The goal of this study was to understand the correlation between microstructural and susceptibility MRI metrics with fatigue and cognitive scores voxel-wise to identify the most involved regions and networks. Approach: A multimodal MRI protocol was acquired in healthy controls, people recovered from COVID19 or with long-COVID, together with clinical assessments. Results: The relationship between MRI metrics and the clinical scores was analyzed. Results showed that white matter and cerebellar regions are the most involved, with inflammation and iron-myelin dysregulation explaining the symptoms. Impact: This work impacts on our understanding of fatigue and cognitive impairment, impactful symptoms of the long-COVID syndrome, emphasizing the role of diffusion MRI and susceptibility mapping models in detecting microstructural and susceptibility alterations voxel-wise.
Authors
- Fulvia Palesi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5027-8770)
- Carmen Tur (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1849-3184)
- Michael S. Zandi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9612-9401)
- Elena Grosso
- Claudia A. M. Gandini Wheeler‐Kingshott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4832-1300)
- Francesco Grussu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0945-3909)
- Marios Yiannakas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4986-446X)
- Marta Gaviraghi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7427-845X)
- Ferrán Prados (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7872-0142)
- Madiha Shatila
- Egidio D’Angelo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6007-7187)
- Baris Kanber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2443-8800)
- Rebecca S. Samson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0197-702X)
- Marco Battiston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2231-2251)
- Anita Monteverdi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0071-9325)
- Antonio Ricciardi
- Eleonora Lupi
- Nargiza Kozhanova
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings on CD-ROM - International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Scientific Meeting and Exhibition/Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Scientific Meeting and Exhibition
- Published
- 2025-09-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.58530/2025/0634
- Primary Topic
- Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00