Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 9, 2026
Isolation and Flow Cytometric Analysis of Immune Cells from the Ischemic Mouse Brain
Published on: February 12, 2016
Cerebral blood flow in patients recovered from mild COVID-19
Souvik Sen1, Roger Newman-Norlund1, Nicholas Riccardi1
1Department of Neurology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
Insights
Mild COVID-19 infection is linked to reduced cerebral blood flow (CBF) in white matter. These CBF patterns may serve as an imaging marker for mild COVID-19, warranting further investigation.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Radiology
- Infectious Diseases
Background:
- Cerebral hypoperfusion is documented in symptomatic COVID-19.
- Investigating cerebral blood flow (CBF) in asymptomatic or mild cases is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess global and regional CBF in individuals with a history of mild COVID-19.
- To identify potential neuroimaging markers associated with mild SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Main Methods:
- Compared CBF in 28 mild COVID-19 cases versus 28 controls.
- Utilized quantitative MRI to measure whole-brain and white matter (WM) CBF.
- Employed region of interest-based analyses for standardized CBF mapping.
Main Results:
- Significantly lower whole-brain CBF (p=0.05) and WM CBF (p=0.03) in COVID-19 cases.
- CBF patterns accurately predicted COVID-19 group membership (85.2%, p < .001).
- Suggests CBF alterations as a potential imaging biomarker for mild COVID-19.
Conclusions:
- Mild COVID-19 is associated with reduced white matter CBF.
- Quantitative MRI reveals widespread regional CBF changes in mild COVID-19 patients.
- Further research is needed to validate this imaging marker and understand underlying mechanisms.
Background And Purpose:
Cerebral hypoperfusion has been described in both severe and mild forms of symptomatic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. The purpose of this study was to investigate global and regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) in asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.
Methods:
Cases with mild COVID-19 infection and age-, sex-, and race-matched healthy controls were drawn from the Aging Brain Consortium at The University of South Carolina data repository. Demographics, risk factors, and data from the Montreal Cognitive Assessment were collected. Mean CBF values for gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and the whole brain were calculated by averaging CBF values of standard space-normalized CBF image values falling within GM and WM masks. Whole brain region of interest-based analyses were used to create standardized CBF maps and explore differences between groups.
Results:
Twenty-eight cases with prior mild COVID-19 infection were compared with 28 controls. Whole-brain CBF (46.7 ± 5.6 vs. 49.3 ± 3.7, p = .05) and WM CBF (29.3 ± 2.6 vs. 31.0 ± 1.6, p = .03) were noted to be significantly lower in COVID-19 cases as compared to controls. Predictive models based on these data predicted COVID-19 group membership with a high degree of accuracy (85.2%, p < .001), suggesting CBF patterns are an imaging marker of mild COVID-19 infection.
Conclusion:
In this study, lower WM CBF, as well as widespread regional CBF changes identified using quantitative MRI, was found in mild COVID-19 patients. Further studies are needed to determine the reliability of this newly identified COVID-19 brain imaging marker and determine what drives these CBF changes.
