MRI imaging technique offers insights into COVID-19 brain impact

Developed by a University of Waterloo engineer, the new imaging technique - correlated diffusion imaging (CDI) - was developed by systems design engineering professor Alexander Wong and recently used in a study by scientists at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute and Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.

“Some may think COVID-19 affects just the lungs,” Dr. Wong said in a statement. “What was found is that this new MRI technique that we created is very good at identifying changes to the brain due to COVID-19. COVID-19 changes the white matter in the brain.”

Wong, a Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Medical Imaging, had previously developed CDI in a search for a better imaging measure for detecting cancer. CDI is a new form of MRI that can better highlight the differences in the way water molecules move in tissue by capturing and mixing MRI signals at different gradient pulse strengths and timings.

Researchers at Rotman thought Wong’s imaging discovery could be used to identify changes to the brain due to COVID-19, with subsequent tests proving the theory right. The CDI imaging of frontal-lobe white matter revealed a less restricted diffusion of water molecules in COVID-19 patients. It simultaneously showed a more restricted diffusion of water molecules in the cerebellum of patients with COVID-19.