Case report: Post-COVID new-onset neurocognitive decline with bilateral mesial-temporal hypometabolism in two previously healthy sisters.

Background: Long coronavirus disease (COVID) is increasingly recognized in adults and children; however, it is still poorly characterized from a clinical and diagnostic perspective, particularly in the younger populations. Case presentation: We described the story of two sisters-with high social and academic performance before their severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection-who reported severe neurocognitive problems, initially classified as psychologic pandemic distress and eventually found to have significant brain hypometabolism. Conclusions: We provided a detailed clinical presentation of neurocognitive symptoms in two sisters with long COVID associated with brain hypometabolism documented in both sisters. We believe that the evidence of objective findings in these children further supports the hypothesis that organic events cause persisting symptoms in a cohort of children after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Such findings highlight the importance of discovering diagnostics and therapeutics.

Orbito-Frontal Cortex Hypometabolism in Children With Post-COVID Condition (Long COVID): A Preliminary Experience.

We describe 3 children with new-onset neurocognitive problems after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), that showed, at the brain [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography, hypometabolism in the left orbito-frontal region. The voxel-wise analysis confirmed a cluster of hypometabolic voxels in this region with a peak at -18/46/-4mm (179 voxels, T-Score 8.1). These findings may explain neurocognitive symptoms that some children develop after COVID-19 and require further investigations.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on oncological disease extent at FDG PET/CT staging: the ONCOVIPET study.

PURPOSE: To investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdown had an impact on the extent of cancer disease at FDG PET/CT staging as surrogate marker. METHODS: Retrospective observational study including cancer patients submitted to FDG PET/CT staging from June 1 to October 31, 2020, and June 1 to October 31, 2019, respectively. Data regarding primary tumour, nodal (N) status and number of involved nodal stations, and presence and number of distant metastases (M) were collected. Each scan was classified in limited vs advanced status. Data were aggregated across the study population and tumour type. Bi-weekly frequencies of the observed events were analysed. RESULTS: Six hundred eleven patients were included (240 in 2019 vs 371 in 2020, respectively). A significant increase of advanced disease patients (rate 1.56, P < 0.001), N + or M + patients (rate 1.84 and 2.09, respectively, P < 0.001), and patients with a greater number of involved N stations or M (rate 2.01 and 2.06, respectively, P < 0.001) were found in 2020 compared with data of 2019. Analysis by tumour type showed a significant increase of advanced disease in lymphoma and lung cancer in 2020 compared with 2019 (P < 0.001). In addition, a significant increase of nodal involvement was found in lung, gastro-intestinal, and breast cancers, as well as in lymphoma patients (P < 0.02). A significant increase of distant metastases was found in lung cancers (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Cancer patients with advanced disease at FDG PET/CT staging increased in 2020 compared with 2019, following the national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 1.5-fold with a significant increase of patients with N or M involvement. Targeted health interventions are needed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on patient outcome.