COVID-19 patients frequently suffer brain complications during the infection and are left with brain injuries that can have lifelong consequences. But how and why this occurs is poorly understood. In October 2020, researchers from the University of Liverpool, King’s College London, University of Cambridge and University of Oxford launched a study to investigate the neurological and neuropsychiatric effects of COVID-192.
The COVID-19 Clinical Neuroscience Study (COVID-CNS) will look at 800 UK patients who were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 and had neurological or neuropsychiatric complications, in order to understand how these issues occur and develop strategies to prevent and treat them. In addition to clinical information, the team will monitor patient outcomes and integrate social and environmental risk factors into the analyses.
According to the researchers, the harmonization of MR protocols across these institutions has opened the possibility of studying the neurological consequences of Long COVID in a significant number of patients using advanced MRI techniques.
Reference
2. King’s College London, Press release, October 21 2020. Available at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/new-national-study-into-neurological-impact-of-covid-19.
