Table 2 Mean (SEM) absolute concentrations (mmol/kg) of brain neurochemicals corrected for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) content in pregenual and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (respectively, pgACC and dACC); scan quality measures (FWHM: Full Width Half Maximum, SNR: Signal To Noise Ratio); voxel content (GM: grey matter, WM: white matter, CSF: cerebrospinal fluid).

From: Brain and muscle chemistry in myalgic encephalitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and long COVID: a 7T magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

 

CFS patients

Long COVID patients

Healthy controls

Univariate GLM/one-way ANOVA

(F value, p)

Univariate GLM between two groups:

ME/CFS vs HC

Long COVID vs HC

ME/CFS vs long COVID

pgACC

 Creatine

(n = 24, 21, 24)

5.45 (0.18)

5.89 (0.22)

5.65 (0.19)

1.352, 0.266

N/A

N/A

N/A

 Glutamate

(n = 24, 21, 24)

14.66 (0.34)

14.12 (0.27)

13.78 (0.25)

2.344, 0.104

N/A

N/A

N/A

 Glutamine

(n = 24, 21, 24)

4.00 (0.16)

4.13 (0.19)

3.92 (0.16)

0.378, 0.687

N/A

N/A

N/A

 Glutathione

(n = 24, 21, 24)

1.67 (0.05)

1.42 (0.10)

1.51 (0.05)

3.373, 0.040

3.434, 0.070

0.643, 0.427

6.802, 0.013

 Lactate

(n = 22, 19, 22)

1.13 (0.08)

0.91 (0.06)

0.88 (0.06)

4.684, 0.013

9.586, 0.004

0.136, 0.714

4.031, 0.052

 Total choline

(n = 24, 21, 24)

2.16 (0.08)

2.32 (0.07)

2.16 (0.06)

1.093, 0.341

N/A

N/A

N/A

 FWHM

0.037 (0.001)

0.039 (0.002)

0.040 (0.002)

0.533, 0.589

N/A

N/A

N/A

 SNR

34.67 (1.06)

32.00 (1.69)

34.88 (0.99)

1.564, 0.217

N/A

N/A

N/A

 GM (%)

64.2 (0.8)

62.0 (0.7)

63.1 (0.4)

1.997, 0.144

N/A

N/A

N/A

 WM (%)

13.7 (0.6)

13.8 (0.6)

13.8 (0.6)

0.019, 0.981

N/A

N/A

N/A

 CSF (%)

22.1 (0.8)

24.2 (1.0)

23.1 (0.8)

1.261, 0.290

N/A

N/A

N/A

dACC

 Creatine

(n = 23, 17, 21)

5.62 (0.13)

5.99 (0.19)

5.58 (0.12)

1.490, 0.234

N/A

N/A

N/A

 Glutamate

(n = 23, 17, 21)

13.77 (0.22)

13.43 (0.29)

13.36 (0.18)

1.527, 0.226

N/A

N/A

N/A

 Glutamine

(n = 23, 17, 21)

4.03 (0.13)

3.95 (0.16)

4.12 (0.15)

0.703, 0.499

N/A

N/A

N/A

 Glutathione

(n = 23, 16, 21)

1.56 (0.07)

1.48 (0.03)

1.61 (0.03)

1.054. 0.355

N/A

N/A

N/A

 Lactate

(n = 22, 16, 17)

1.14 (0.07)

1.11 (0.08)

0.98 (0.03)

4.634, 0.014

8.618, 0.006

2.007, 0.167

3.089, 0.088

 Total choline

(n = 23, 17, 21)

1.99 (0.07)

1.77 (0.11)

2.20 (0.09)

8.098, 0.0008

1.625, 0.210

17.692, 0.0002

6.669, 0.014

 FWHM

0.027 (0.001)

0.029 (0.001)

0.043 (0.015)

0.972, 0.384

N/A

N/A

N/A

 SNR

40.91 (1.42)

38.94 (1.74)

40.90 (0.943)

0.619, 0.542

N/A

N/A

N/A

 GM (%)

62.7 (0.6)

60.8 (0.6)

61.4 (1.0)

1.383, 0.259

N/A

N/A

N/A

 WM (%)

20.9 (0.7)

22.4 (1.0)

19.9 (0.7)

2.200, 0.120

N/A

N/A

N/A

 CSF (%)

16.4 (0.8)

16.8 (0.8)

18.7 (0.8)

2.377, 0.102

N/A

N/A

N/A

  1. For all metabolites, there were no between-group differences in terms of CRLB (p > 0.05). For all metabolites, univariate general linear model (GLM) were performed adjusting for age, with two-group comparisons performed for significant results only. For other measures, one-way ANOVA was performed.
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