British researchers have suggested that severe Covid infections may drive inflammation in the brain’s “control centre”, causing damage that could explain the long-term breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety experienced by some patients.
High-resolution MRI scans of 30 people hospitalised with Covid early in the pandemic, before the introduction of vaccines, found signs of inflammation in the brainstem, a small but critical structure that governs life-sustaining bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure, they said.
The scans suggest that severe Covid infections can provoke an immune reaction which inflames the brainstem, with the resulting damage producing symptoms that can last for months after patients have been discharged.
“The fact that we see abnormalities in the parts of the brain associated with breathing strongly suggests that long-lasting symptoms are an effect of inflammation in the brainstem after Covid-19 infection,” said Dr Catarina Rua, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge and first author on the study. ….more
