Extended Data Fig. 2: Characteristics of the COVID-19 and control patients.

a, Age did not affect the number of string vessels per volume of the image. N = 40 patients. b, String vessels were increased in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients independent of sex. N = 10 female and 13 male control, N = 7 female and 10 male COVID-19 patients. c, Comorbidities were equally distributed across control and COVID-19 patients. For characteristics of the patients, refer to Fig. 1c and Supplementary Tables 1-2. N = 23 control, N = 17 COVID-19 patients. d, String vessels were increased in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients independent of cerebral comorbidities. N = 19 control patients without and 4 with cerebral comorbidity, N = 9 COVID-19 patients without and 8 with cerebral comorbidity. e, Brain weight was not different between COVID-19 and control patients. f, Brain edema score was not different between COVID-19 and control patients. N = 23 control, N = 17 COVID-19 patients. Medians are shown. g, Brain atrophy score was increased in COVID-19 compared to control patients. N = 23 control, N = 17 COVID-19 patients. Medians are shown. h, String vessels of control patients with or without ventilation are shown. N = 10 patients per group. i, String vessels of control patients who were treated in an intensive care unit (ICU) or not are shown. N = 6 no ICU, N = 16 ICU. j, None of the COVID-19 or control patients showed evidence for a hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, also known as ‘respirator brain’. Characteristic morphological features of eosinophilic neurons, laminar changes in the cerebral cortex or loss of neurons were not detectible. Representative images of a combined HE and Nissl staining of brain sections from a control and COVID-19 patient as well as a brain section from a patient with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy are depicted. Scale bar, 50 µm. Means ± s.e.m. are shown if not stated otherwise. * p < 0.05 *** p < 0.001. Detailed information about the exact test statistics, sidedness and values are provided in Supplementary Table 5.