The results suggest that MRI could offer doctors a useful alternative to CT to assess patients with COVID-19 in the future, especially because these long-term symptoms can be subtle, wrote a team led by Alexander Matheson, a student. PhD at Western University London. Canada.
“Because MRI directly probes the function of the alveolar-capillary boundary, it may be more sensitive or more oriented than CT to microvascular abnormalities,” the group noted.
Previous studies have indicated that the incidence of post-COVID-19 symptoms among people who are at least 12 weeks out of the initial infection, such as difficult breathing at both rest and exertion, fatigue, limited exercise, muscle weakness, and cognitive deficits. (i.e., “brain fog”): It ranges from 20% to 81%, the researchers explained.
These symptoms can be difficult to identify and treat, as they often cannot be consistently confirmed with tools such as spirometry, lung tests, or even CT scans. In addition, previous research has investigated the long-term effects of COVID-19 in patients who were hospitalized for it, not in those who were never hospitalized.
Xe-129 MRI offers the ability to identify “capillary-level abnormalities by detecting inhaled Xe-129 dissolved in the alveolar membrane,” the group wrote. Matheson and colleagues explored any link between persistent symptoms of COVID-19 and exercise limitations in 34 patients who contracted COVID-19 but were never hospitalized using magnetic resonance imaging and pulmonary vascular measurements. TC Xe-129. His study also included six healthy controls.
Patients with post-acute COVID-19 syndrome underwent spirometry, a lung test called lung diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO), Xe-129 MRI, and chest CT, while healthy controls they had each of these tests except chest CT. .
The team monitored red blood cells from the Xe-129 MRI scan of patients with alveolar barrier signal proportions and areas of red blood cells below the curve values (AUC). Study participants also completed several questionnaires to assess their quality of life, exercise limitations, and difficult breathing.
Xe-129 gas magnetic resonance imaging showed poorer values in lung health measures, such as the ability of carbon monoxide to diffuse from the lungs, the ability to exercise, and the ability to breathe (conditions related to Xe-129 MRI findings on what the team labeled “red). blood cell area under the spectroscopy curve”, calling it “AUC”). Magnetic resonance imaging findings were also correlated with poor pulmonary vascular density findings on CT examination.
“In our study, [Xe-129 MRI suggests] Temporary persistent pulmonary vascular density and gas transfer abnormalities that were related to exercise limitation and exertional dyspnea, “the researchers wrote.” We observed abnormal X-ray gas exchange measures. 129 in participants never hospitalized with COVID and some Xe-129. Magnetic resonance imaging measures were worse in patients never hospitalized compared to controls. “
The findings are promising, but the study has some limitations: that is, the method by which Xe-129 MRI scans were performed and what it showed about gas transfer and age differences between participants. healthy and patient, wrote Jim Wild, PhD. , and Guilhem Collier, PhD, both of the University of Sheffield in the UK, in an attached editorial.
“We are very pleased to see this work added to the literature on dissolved xenon MRI in post-COVID lung disease and we share the urgency of understanding the symptoms of post-COVID lung disease,” they wrote. “However, we need to ensure that findings are reasonably adjusted to age-appropriate regulatory data before clinically significant conclusions can be drawn.”
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