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We Just Got More Evidence That Long COVID Is a Brain Injury (sciencealert.com)

submitted 1 year ago by just_another_person@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world 97 points 1 year ago

Normal hospital-type MRI scanners can't see inside the brain with the kind of chemical and physical detail we need. But with 7T (7 Tesla) scanners, we can now measure these details

Not the best article, but I think what they are trying to say over multiple paragraphs is that new higher resolution MRI machines can see the damage that normal lower resolution MRI can't see

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago

what type of abnormalities are they seeing specifically?

[-] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 32 points 1 year ago

FTA: Signs of ongoing inflammation in the brainstem, something that is seen in people with traumatic brain injury and people with chronic fatigue syndrome.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

oh, interesting.

so this new study is saying they can see on a small enough scale to find that scientifically consistent and significant inflammation in the brainstem directly linked to covid?

[-] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago

Precisely. They had previously been unable to see this in living patients due to limitations of typical MRI machines but had found signs in the deceased. The major change is that, using a more powerful (7 Tesla) MRI machine, they were able to see these same symptoms in living patients for the first time.