Researchers at Northwestern University observed a decrease in retinal capillary perfusion in nonhospitalized patients with long COVID and persistent neurologic symptoms. Their observation indicated potential microvascular involvement in the pathogenesis of long COVID. Using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A), the researchers found that reductions in vessel length density correlated with the severity of neurocognitive symptoms, which suggested that microvascular dysfunction may contribute to neurologic manifestations of long COVID. Findings indicated that retinal OCT-A imaging could serve as a noninvasive biomarker for small vessel disease in long COVID and potentially offer insights into the pathophysiology and management of Neuro-PASC.

Source: Journal of Imaging