Abstract #0398

The Sense of Smell atlas: from creation to the first application for investigating COVID-19-related anosmia with quantitative multimodal-MRI

Marta Gaviraghi¹, Eleonora Lupi¹, Elena Grosso¹, Andrea Fusari¹, Mattia Baiguera¹, Anita Monteverdi², Marco Battiston³, Francesco Grussu^3,4, Baris Kanber^3,5, Ferran Prados Carrasco ^3,5,6, Rebecca S Samson³, Janine Makaronidis^7,8,9, Marios C Yiannakas³, Egidio D’Angelo^1,2, Fulvia Palesi¹, and Claudia AM Gandini Wheeler-Kingshott^1,2,3

¹Department of Brain & Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, ²Digital Neuroscience Centre, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy, ³NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom, ⁴Radiomics Group, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Barcelona, Spain, ⁵Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, UCL Hawkes Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom, ⁶E-Health Center, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, ⁷Centre for Obesity Research, Department of Medicine, University College London, London, United Kingdom, ⁸National Institute of Health Research, UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, London, United Kingdom, ⁹Department of Diabetes and Metabolism, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom

Synopsis

Keywords: Tractography, COVID-19, olfactory atlas

Motivation: The versatility of MRI allows to study in-vivo brain microstructure, neuroinflammation, iron and myelin properties to understand mechanisms of anosmia.

Goal(s): Create an olfactory atlas and analyse 15 quantitative multimodal-MRI metrics to detect pathophysiological changes in COVID-19 related anosmia participants.

Approach: The atlas was created starting from anosmia-involved grey matter regions and using tractography to reconstruct anatomically realistic tracts. Region and voxel-wise analyses were applied within the atlas to compare COVID-19 persistent anosmia (COVID-P) with recovered (COVID-R) and healthy controls.

Results: COVID-P subjects still present neuroinflammation and axonal degeneration, whereas COVID-R subjects present active compensatory mechanisms including possible remyelination.

Impact: For the first time, a comprehensive olfactory circuit atlas with regions and anatomically realistic tracts is presented. This atlas combined with analysis at regions and voxel-wise level on multimodal-MRI maps, lays the foundation for understanding the mechanisms of COVID-19-related anosmia.

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