BREAKING! Brain Injury: Swedish Researchers Warn That Signs Of Brain Injury Displayed In Both Severe And Moderate COVID-19 Patients
Source: Brain Injury Jun 19, 2020 4 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 14 hours ago
Brain Injury: A Swedish study by the University of Gothenburg study shows that certain individuals who receive hospital care for coronavirus infection (COVID-19) exhibit clinical and neurochemical signs of brain injury.
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Disturbingly even certain moderate COVID-19 cases exhibit these same findings when blood-based biomarkers for brain damage were tested.
The study findings were published in the journal: Neurology.
https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2020/06/16/WNL.0000000000010111
Though some individuals infected with the SARS-CoV-2coronavirus get only mild, cold-like symptoms, while others become severely ill and require hospital treatment, among the latter, it has become clear that the patients sometimes show obvious signs of the brain not functioning as it should. These cases are not common, but do occur.
In a study at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, blood samples were taken from 47 patients with mild, moderate and severe COVID-19 in the course of their hospital stay. These samples were analyzed by means of highly sensitive biomarkers for brain injury. The results were compared with those from a healthy control group comprising 33 people matched by age and sex.
The study showed that it was it evident that an increase in one of the biomarkers took place even with moderate COVID-19 ie that is, in patients admitted to hospital but not in need of ventilator support. This marker, known as GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein), is normally present in astrocytes, a star-shaped neuron-supportive cell type in the brain, but leaks out in the event of astrocytic injury or overactivation.
The other biomarker investigated was NfL (neurofilament light chain protein), which is normally to be found inside the brain's neuronal outgrowths, which it serves to stabilize, but which leaks out into the blood if they are damaged. Elevated plasma NfL concentrations were found in most of the patients who required ventilator treatment, and there was a marked correlation between how much they rose and the severity of the disease.
Dr Henrik Zetterberg, Professor of Neurochemistry at Sahlgrenska Academy, told Thailand Medical News, "The increase in NfL levels, in particular, over time is greater than we have seen previously in studies connected with intensive care, and this suggests that COVID-19 can in fact directly bring about a brain injury. Whether it's the virus or the immune system that's causing this is unclear at present, and more research is needed."
Dr Magnus Gisslén, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Sahlgrenska Academy and chief physician at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, led the Academy's clinical research on COVID-19.
Dr Gisslén in his view feels that blood tests for biomarkers associated with brain injury could be used for monitoring patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, to reduce the risk of brain injury.
Dr Gisslén added, "It would be highly interesting to see whether the NfL increase can be slowed down with new therapies, such as the
new dexamethasone treatment that's now been proposed."
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