Survivors of COVID-19 exhibit altered amplitudes of low frequency fluctuation in the brain: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study at 1-year follow-up.

Although some short-term follow-up studies have found that individuals recovering from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exhibit anxiety, depression, and altered brain microstructure, their long-term physical problems, neuropsychiatric sequelae, and changes in brain function remain unknown. This observational cohort study collected 1-year follow-up data from 22 patients who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 (8 males and 11 females, aged 54.2 ± 8.7 years). Fatigue and myalgia were persistent symptoms at the 1-year follow-up. The resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that compared with 29 healthy controls (7 males and 18 females, aged 50.5 ± 11.6 years), COVID-19 survivors had greatly increased amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) values in the left precentral gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus of operculum, inferior frontal gyrus of triangle, insula, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, postcentral gyrus, inferior parietal angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, angular gyrus, thalamus, middle temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus, caudate, and putamen. ALFF values in the left caudate of the COVID-19 survivors were positively correlated with their Athens Insomnia Scale scores, and those in the left precentral gyrus were positively correlated with neutrophil count during hospitalization. The long-term follow-up results suggest that the ALFF in brain regions related to mood and sleep regulation were altered in COVID-19 survivors. This can help us understand the neurobiological mechanisms of COVID-19-related neuropsychiatric sequelae. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University (approval No. 2020S004) on March 19, 2020.

[Infant mortality and its leading causes in Sichuan province, from 2001 to 2009].

OBJECTIVE: To study the trend of infant mortality and the leading cause of the deaths in Sichuan province from 2001 to 2009. METHODS: Data presented in this report was obtained from the child mortality surveillance network with target population as children under 5 years of age. Rates on infant mortality, neonatal mortality and indirect estimation of infant mortality were calculated. RESULTS: The neonatal mortality rate and infant mortality rate in Sichuan dropped from 18.6, 25.5 in 2001 to 7.6, 12.1 per 1000 live birth in 2009, with rates of decline as 59.1% and 35.0%, from 2001 to 2009. In urban areas of Sichuan, the neonatal and infant mortality rates dropped from 4.7, 7.5 in 2001 to 3.7 and 6.5 per 1000 live birth in 2009, with the rates of decline as 22.3% and 13.1%. In the rural areas of Sichuan, the neonatal and infant mortality rates dropped from 25.2 and 34.0 in 2001 to 9.6, 14.3 per 1000 live birth in 2009, with rates of decline as 62.0%, 57.9% from 2001 to 2009. CONCLUSION: In both urban and rural areas, the neonatal and infant mortality rates had decreased drastically from 2001 to 2009, due to the decrease of avoidable deaths as pneumonia and diarrhea in infants.