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COVID-19, which is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has caused millions of cases and fatalities around the world. It is clearer and clearer how ex-COVID-19 patients endure neurological symptoms, such as headaches and cognitive impairment, in addition to respiratory problems. Long COVID refers to symptoms that continue after the acute phase, impacting millions of people and having severe socioeconomic consequences. The pathogenesis of neurological symptoms in long-term COVID is still unknown, making diagnosis and management difficult. The purpose of this review is to investigate the ophthalmological/neurological effects of prolonged COVID and the possibility of eye-tracking technology as an objective biomarker for diagnosis and monitoring. A systematic literature search was carried out, yielding ten relevant studies. Several ophthalmological signals, such as saccadic movements and pupillary reflexes, were found to be significantly affected in patients with long COVID. These signals were measured using a variety of methods, including infrared cameras and eye-tracking systems. The study emphasises the need for more research to develop standardised biomarkers for long COVID diagnosis and monitoring. Understanding the ophthalmological impacts of long COVID can help develop novel tools for assessing and controlling this disorder.

Supplemental material, PrOMBiS_supplementary_information_V4 for Exploratory Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial of Botulinum Therapy on Grasp Release After Stroke (PrOMBiS) by Amanda Claire Wallace, Penelope Talelli, Lucinda Crook, Duncan Austin, Rachel Farrell, Damon Hoad, Aidan G. O’Keeffe, Jonathan F. Marsden, Richard Fitzpatrick, Richard Greenwood, John C. Rothwell and David J. Werring in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair

Background\ud \ud Alternating hemiplegia of childhood is a very rare and serious neurodevelopmental syndrome; its genetic basis has recently been established. Its characteristic features include typically-unprovoked episodes of hemiplegia and other transient or more persistent neurological abnormalities.\ud \ud Methods\ud \ud We used transcranial magnetic stimulation to assess the effect of the condition on motor cortex neurophysiology both during and between attacks of hemiplegia. Nine people with alternating hemiplegia of childhood were recruited; eight were successfully tested using transcranial magnetic stimulation to study motor cortex excitability, using single and paired pulse paradigms. For comparison, data from ten people with epilepsy but not alternating hemiplegia, and ten healthy controls, were used.\ud \ud Results\ud \ud One person with alternating hemiplegia tested during the onset of a hemiplegic attack showed progressively diminishing motor cortex excitability until no response could be evoked; a second person tested during a prolonged bilateral hemiplegic attack showed unusually low excitability. Three people tested between attacks showed asymptomatic variation in cortical excitability, not seen in controls. Paired pulse paradigms, which probe intracortical inhibitory and excitatory circuits, gave results similar to controls.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud \ud We report symptomatic and asymptomatic fluctuations in motor cortex excitability in people with alternating hemiplegia of childhood, not seen in controls. We propose that such fluctuations underlie hemiplegic attacks, and speculate that the asymptomatic fluctuation we detected may be useful as a biomarker for disease activity.\ud