Alterations of frontal-temporal gray matter volume associate with clinical measures of older adults with COVID-19

• Published in: Neurobiology of stress Vol. 14; p. 100326
• Main Authors: Duan, Kuaikuai, Premi, Enrico, Pilotto, Andrea, Cristillo, Viviana, Benussi, Alberto, Libri, Ilenia, Giunta, Marcello, Bockholt, H. Jeremy, Liu, Jingyu, Campora, Riccardo, Pezzini, Alessandro, Gasparotti, Roberto, Magoni, Mauro, Padovani, Alessandro, Calhoun, Vince D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.05.2021; Elsevier
• Subjects: Computed tomography; COVID-19; from the Special Issue on Neurobiology of Stress related to Covid-19; Edited by Rita Valentino, Victoria Risbrough and Lawrence Reagan; Frontal-temporal network; Gray matter volume; Source-based morphometry; COVID-19; Gray matter volume; Computed tomography; Source-based morphometry; Frontal-temporal network
• ISSN: 2352-2895; 2352-2895
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2021.100326

COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a global pandemic. It dramatically affects people's health and daily life. Neurological complications are increasingly documented for patients with COVID-19. However, the effect of COVID-19 on the brain is less studied, and existing quantitative neuroimaging analyses of COVID-19 were mainly based on the univariate voxel-based morphometry analysis (VBM) that requires corrections for a large number of tests for statistical significance, multivariate approaches that can reduce the number of tests to be corrected have not been applied to study COVID-19 effect on the brain yet. In this study, we leveraged source-based morphometry (SBM) analysis, a multivariate extension of VBM, to identify changes derived from computed tomography scans in covarying gray matter volume patterns underlying COVID-19 in 120 neurological patients (including 58 cases with COVID-19 and 62 patients without COVID-19 matched for age, gender and diseases). SBM identified that lower gray matter volume (GMV) in superior/medial/middle frontal gyri was significantly associated with a higher level of disability (modified Rankin Scale) at both discharge and six months follow-up phases even when controlling for cerebrovascular diseases. GMV in superior/medial/middle frontal gyri was also significantly reduced in patients receiving oxygen therapy compared to patients not receiving oxygen therapy. Patients with fever presented significant GMV reduction in inferior/middle temporal gyri and fusiform gyrus compared to patients without fever. Patients with agitation showed GMV reduction in superior/medial/middle frontal gyri compared to patients without agitation. Patients with COVID-19 showed no significant GMV differences from patients without COVID-19 in any brain region. Results suggest that COVID-19 may affect the frontal-temporal network in a secondary manner through fever or lack of oxygen. •We identified gray matter alterations underlying COVID-19 using source-based morphometry.•Lower gray matter volume (GMV) in frontal regions linked to more severe disability.•Patients receiving oxygen therapy had lower GMV in widespread frontal regions.•Patients with fever presented reduced GMV in temporal and fusiform gyri.