Cerebrovascular Complications and Vessel Wall Imaging in COVID-19 Encephalopathy-A Pilot Study.
Clin Neuroradiol
; 32(1): 287-293, 2022 Mar.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1151987
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is associated with several complications of the central nervous system (CNS), including acute encephalopathy.METHODS:
In this pilot study, we report a series of 39 patients (66.5⯱ 9.2 years; 10.3% female) with acute encephalopathy, who underwent a standard brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 1.5â¯T during the acute symptomatic phase. In addition to diffusion-weighted imaging, MR angiography and susceptibility-weighted images, high-resolution vascular black blood sequences (in 34 cases) were used to investigate the vasculature of the brain.RESULTS:
In 29 out of 34 patients with COVID-19 encephalopathy (85%) with high-resolution vessel wall imaging, we found a circular enhancement and thickening of the basilar and vertebral arteries, without any correlation with ischemia or microbleeds (reported in 21% and 59%, respectively).CONCLUSION:
We report a high prevalence of vascular changes suggestive of endotheliitis as reported in other organs. This could suggest an inflammatory mechanism underlying this encephalopathy.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Brain Diseases
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
English
Journal:
Clin Neuroradiol
Journal subject:
Neurology
/
Radiology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S00062-021-01008-2
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