Covid Modifies the Size of Gray Matter, New Study Finds | the Chronicle

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Covid It has caused more than 161 million infections and the death of more than 3.3 million people worldwide. Despite scientific effort and the speed with which vaccines have been developed, there is still a lot to be discovered about this disease.

All sequelae produced by the coronavirusThe most notorious is respiratory distress. But it is known that there are many others, among which are hair loss, chronic headaches, heart disease, among others.

Now, a new study from Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Thernology in the United States has found that patients who have undergone oxygen therapy and had high temperatures show a reduced gray matter volume in the frontotemporal region of the brain.

This research found that this decrease in gray matter volume was associated with Covid-19. And this can be developed up to six months after being released.

The specialists used CT scans of 120 neurological patients, 58 of them positive for Covid and 62 who formed the control group.

“ Previous studies have looked at how the brain is affected by coronavirus using a single variable approach, but ours is it. first to use multivariate approach on the basis of data making it possible to link these changes to the specific characteristics of Covid-19 (such as fever and lack of oxygen), with a result (the level of disability) “Explain Kuaikuai Duan, one of the authors, in a statement.

In addition, the researchers found that the volume of gray matter in this region was significantly reduced more in patients who received oxygen therapy compared to patients who did not receive it. The same has happened with patients with high fever.

This is why they came to the conclusion that the Covid can affect the frontotemporal regionby fever or lack of oxygen.

“More and more neurological complications are documented in patients with COVID-19. It has also been shown that reducing gray matteris present in other mood disorders, such as schizophrenia“, he pointed Vince Calhoun, the other researcher.

The researchers’ next step, they said, is replicate the study in a larger sample which includes many types of brain scans and different populations of patients with the disease.

What is gray matter?

Also called grey matter, is a tissue that includes areas of the central nervous system in which neuronal bodies predominate. That is to say the part of the neuron in which its nucleus is located and its “body” from which the branches start.

The gray color of these areas contrasts with the white of the rest of the nervous system, which looks like this because axons of neurons predominate in it, that is, the extensions that originate from bodies and are covered with white myelin.

Areas of the brain and spinal cord made up of gray matter do not form a homogeneous whole, but they are distributed and in some cases there is white matter between them. However, in most cases these areas are large enough that they can be distinguished.

The main function of these zones is not to pass electricity quickly through them, but rather to information processing.

Since the content of the information processed by the gray matter areas is very varied, the effects of a decrease or an increase in this substance are also varied. That’s why injuries in these areas depend on the type of structure they affect