TY  - JOUR
AU  - Dadsena, Ravi
AU  - Wetz, Sophie
AU  - Hofmann, Anna
AU  - Costa, Ana Sofia
AU  - Romanzetti, Sandro
AU  - Lischewski, Stella Andrea
AU  - Krockauer, Christina
AU  - Balloff, Carolin
AU  - Binkofski, Ferdinand
AU  - Schulz, Jörg B
AU  - Reetz, Kathrin
AU  - Walders, Julia
TI  - Evidence of clinical and brain recovery in post-COVID-19 condition: a three-year follow-up study.
JO  - Brain communications
VL  - 7
IS  - 5
SN  - 2632-1297
CY  - [Oxford]
PB  - Oxford University Press
M1  - DZNE-2025-01173
SP  - fcaf366
PY  - 2025
AB  - Fatigue and cognitive dysfunction linked to persistent brain changes have been reported for up to two years after COVID-19. In this study, we followed the clinical, neuroimaging and fluid biomarker trajectories over three years post SARS-CoV-2 infection to evaluate potential signs and underlying factors of brain recovery. We conducted a monocentric, longitudinal study using resting-state functional and structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data from 51 patients with post-COVID-19 condition (mean age 50 years, 33 female) collected at a mean time of 6, 23 and 38 months after COVID-19 infection. The trajectory of brain changes was compared to 23 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (mean age 37 years, 13 female) with similar time intervals between brain scans and analysed in relation to clinical, neuropsychological and fluid biomarkers including interleukins and neurodestruction markers at all timepoints. In addition, hand grip strength to evaluate muscular fatigue was assessed at the final follow-up visit. Self-reported fatigue improved over time but was still moderate on average three years after COVID-19 infection, while measures of hand grip strength and cognitive performance were largely unaffected. We found a significant increase of both lateral ventricles (∼8
KW  - ALFF (Other)
KW  - CNS (Other)
KW  - MRI (Other)
KW  - fatigue (Other)
KW  - long COVID (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:41079753
C2  - pmc:PMC12508649
DO  - DOI:10.1093/braincomms/fcaf366
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/281778
ER  -