Acute/ Subacute and Chronic Neuroimaging Findings of COVID-19: A
Systematic Review
Abstract
COVID-19, a predominantly respiratory infection, is demonstrated to
cause neurologic complications even in the recovery phase. This
systematic review aims to investigate the neuroimaging findings in
Acute/ Subacute and Chronic or Post-COVID-19 patients. We searched the
online databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, using relevant
keywords up to December, 2021. We included all observational studies
reporting neuroimaging findings in confirmed COVID-19 patients, during
acute/subacute or chronic phase. We included 25 studies in our study.
Structural and functional neuroimaging modalities, mainly magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
positron emission tomography (PET), and computed tomography (CT), were
applied in COVID patients with valuable findings to detect the neural
alterations in the brain. Hypometabolism in various regions of the
brain, especially the hippocampus, parahippocampus, entorhinal cortices,
cingulate, and frontal cortices as well as pons and thalamus were among
findings reported in post-COVID patients. In addition, anatomical
alterations in different areas of the brain including the thalamus,
pons, cingulate cortex, corpus callosum, and Globus pallidus were
reported. Such findings can justify several post-COVID neurological
symptoms or complications. Structural and functional neuroimaging in
COVID and post-COVID patients potentially can show alterations which can
help in follow up of patients.