United States: According to recent reports, it is said that fatigue is one of the most frequently occurrence conditions in those with long COVID. However, it has been one of the hardest to measure objectively.
More about the news
Research says current levels of mental and physical fatigue, typical of long COVID sufferers, can be seen in the central nervous system.
Using scanned images of the brain, the authors recruited 127 patients with long COVID and identified that some regions of the brain communicate with others slightly differently.
These regions include the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, and the cerebellum, and although the period of time it lasts, its pattern may be used to diagnose individuals fighting chronic fatigue.
What are the experts stating?
According to researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain, “These findings suggest a role of central nervous system involvement in the pathophysiology of fatigue in post-COVID syndrome,” sciencealert.com reported.
Moreover, “The existence of several brain characteristics associated with fatigue severity detected by magnetic resonance imaging could constitute a neuroimaging biomarker to objectively evaluate this symptom in clinical trials,” they said.
A few findings of the study
The frontal lobe refers to a part of the brain, which performs critical functions of superior kind such as planning, reasoning, and problem solving.
While the temporal lobe deals with memory and processing, the cerebellum is linked with movement, posture, and balance.
All three areas have been outlined to previously present changes regarding the connectivity of patients diagnosed with CFS/ME.
It is still unclear how CFS/ME is linked to long COVID, although both illnesses come with many of the same symptoms.
Current studies promise that there are similar brain alterations in long COVID patients to those in CFS/ME, but the studies must include a larger and more diverse population.
According to the researchers, “The involvement of the central nervous system in the pathophysiology of fatigue in post-COVID syndrome paves the way for the use of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques to alleviate fatigue in these patients,” sciencealert.com reported.