Persistent alterations in gray matter in COVID-19 patients experiencing sleep disturbances: a 3-month longitudinal study

作者：Kaixuan Zhou, Gaoxiong Duan, Ying Liu, Bei Peng, Xiaoyan Zhou, Lixia Qin, Lingyan Liang, Yichen Wei, Qingping Zhang, Xiaocheng Li, Haixia Qin, Yinqi Lai, Yian Lu, Yan Zhang, Jiazhu Huang, Jinli Huang, Yinfei Ouyang, Bolin Bin, Mingming Zhao, Jun Liu, Jianrong Yang, Demao Deng · 发表于：Neural Regeneration Research · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.4103/nrr.nrr-d-23-01651 · 被引用次数：10 · 研究领域：Long-Term Effects of COVID-19、Sleep and related disorders、Sleep and Wakefulness Research

JOURNAL/nrgr/04.03/01300535-202510000-00030/figure1/v/2024-11-26T163120Z/r/image-tiff Sleep disturbances are among the most prevalent neuropsychiatric symptoms in individuals who have recovered from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections. Previous studies have demonstrated abnormal brain structures in patients with sleep disturbances who have recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, neuroimaging studies on sleep disturbances caused by COVID-19 are scarce, and existing studies have primarily focused on the long-term effects of the virus, with minimal acute phase data. As a result, little is known about the pathophysiology of sleep disturbances in the acute phase of COVID-19. To address this issue, we designed a longitudinal study to investigate whether alterations in brain structure occur during the acute phase of infection, and verified the results using 3-month follow-up data. A total of 26 COVID-19 patients with sleep disturbances (aged 51.5 ± 13.57 years, 8 women and 18 men), 27 COVID-19 patients without sleep disturbances (aged 47.33 ± 15.98 years, 9 women and 18 men), and 31 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (aged 49.19 ± 17.51 years, 9 women and 22 men) were included in this study. Eleven COVID-19 patients with sleep disturbances were included in a longitudinal analysis. We found that COVID-19 patients with sleep disturbances exhibited brain structural changes in almost all brain lobes. The cortical thicknesses of the left ...