Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Acute inflammatory CNS diseases following vaccination against SARS-CoV-2
  1. Anna Francis1,
  2. Valentina Camera2,
  3. Kariem Elhadd3,
  4. Matthew Craner2,
  5. Katherine Attfield2,
  6. Astrid Iversen2,
  7. Saif Huda4,
  8. Lars Fugger1,
  9. Jacqueline Palace1
  1. 1Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford University, John Radcliffe Hospital
  2. 2Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences. University of Verona, Italy
  3. 3The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust
  4. 4Liverpool University

Abstract

Background Vaccination is a recognised trigger of ADEM and approximately 50% paediatric cases have antibodies to MOG. The SARS-CoV-2 mass vaccination programme could therefore trigger cases of MOGAD. Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an autoimmune inflammatory condition of the CNS associ- ated with antibodies to AQP4.

Method Ten patients (ages 22 – 65 years) with antibodies to MOG or AQP4 were referred to the NHS England NMO service having developed acute onset CNS inflammation within 8 weeks of vaccination.

Results Eight patients had MOGAD, seven of whom received the AstraZeneca vaccine (AZV) and one the Pfizer vaccine (PV). Only the post-PV MOGAD patient presented with typical adult-onset phenotype of isolated ON. All post-AZV MOGAD patients presented atypically; 85.7% had LETM and 71.4% had intrac- erebral lesions, resembling ADEM more commonly seen in paediatric MOGAD. The atypical presentation supports a causative role of AZV, but the role of PV is less convincing.

Two patients had AQP4-NMOSD with typical demographic features. Both received AZV. Less typically, one young adult presented with LETM rather than characteristic young adult ON, the other had a silent short segment myelitis, which is rarely seen in AQP4-NMOSD. Both patients achieved good outcomes.

Conclusion We discuss the potential causation and pathophysiological mechanisms.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.