SYDNEY, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A pilot study led by Griffith University has shown that chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID-19 have similar brainstem abnormalities which will contribute to neurological and cardio-respiratory symptoms.
The study, published in the Frontiers in Neuroscience journal on March 2, involved 10 myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients, eight long COVID patients, and 10 healthy control subjects.
By using a 7T whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research scanner with a 32-channel head coil, researchers found that the brainstem was significantly larger in ME/CFS and long COVID patients compared to those who did not suffer from the same ailments.
"We primarily used the 7T MRI to research the brainstem and its sub-regions as it helps to resolve brain structures more precisely to discover abnormalities that other MRIs aren't able to detect," Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik, co-author and director of the National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases at the Griffith University, said on Tuesday.
According to the study, clinical measures for "pain" and "breathing difficulty" showed a strong relationship with pons, midbrain, and whole brainstem volumes in ME/CFS and long COVID patients, while volumes of the whole brainstem and its subregions were not significantly different between the two cohorts.
In the eyes of Kiran Thapaliya, the lead author and a research fellow at Griffith University, their findings demonstrated that similar volumes of the brainstem in patients could be the reason why long COVID patients exhibit all common core symptoms of ME/CFS.
"We also discovered smaller midbrain volumes were associated with more severe breathing difficulty in ME/CFS and long COVID patients," said Thapaliya.
"Therefore, brainstem dysfunction in ME/CFS and long COVID patients could contribute to their neurological, cardiorespiratory symptoms, and movement disorder," he added. ■