Clinical Profile and Outcomes of COVID-19-Associated Transverse Myelitis: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Purpose of Review The purpose of this study was to evaluate demographics, clinical profiles, and outcomes of transverse myelitis (TM) in the setting of COVID-19 infection (iTM) or vaccination (vTM) and to describe a case of spontaneous resolution of iTM. Recent Findings Of a total of 158 articles that met our search criteria, 30 articles detailing 65 unique cases were included, of which 48 (73.8%) were iTM and 17 (26.2%) were vTM. The mean age of the iTM group was significantly lower as compared with vTM (43 ± 20.3 years vs 56.4 ± 18.6 years; p = 0.02). There were no gender differences between the groups. There were no significant differences in time to symptom onset (9.9 ± 14.3 days in iTM vs 7.6 ± 7.0 days in vTM, p = 0.2) between the groups. There were no significant differences between iTM and vTM in imaging features or laboratory abnormalities. The most common pharmacotherapy that was administered was intravenous (i.v.) corticosteroid (n = 56, 87.5%), followed by oral corticosteroids (n = 20, 31.2%), plasmapheresis (n = 19, 29.7%), and intravenous immunoglobulin (n = 14, 21.9%). Most of the cases reported a good outcome (n = 51, 79.7%) with no significant differences between the groups (77.1% in iTM vs 87.5% in vTM; p = 0.37). Summary There are no significant differences with respect to time to presentation, clinical and radiological features, and in outcomes between iTM and vTM, suggesting a common pathogenesis. Approximately 80% of cases h...
Source: Neurology Clinical Practice - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Review Source Type: research