ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To describe the temporal association of specific acute neurological symptoms in pediatric patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between May and August 2020. METHODS: We performed a recollection of all the clinical and laboratory data of patients having acute neurological symptoms temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection at a third-level referral hospital in Mexico City (Instituto Nacional de Pediatría). Patients in an age group of 0-17 years with acute neurological signs (including ascending weakness with areflexia, diminished visual acuity, encephalopathy, ataxia, stroke, or weakness with plasma creatinine kinase (CK) elevation) were evaluated. RESULTS: Out of 23 patients with neurological manifestations, 10 (43%) had a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among the infected patients, 5 (50%) were males aged 2-16 years old (median age 11.8 years old). Four (40%) patients confirmed a close contact with a relative positive for SARS-CoV-2, while 6 (60%) cases had a history of SARS-CoV-2-related symptoms over the previous 2 weeks. The following diagnoses were established: 3 cases of GBS, 2 of ON, 2 of AIS, one of myositis with rhabdomyolysis, one ACA, and one of anti-NMDA-R encephalitis. CONCLUSIONS: Neurological manifestations temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection were noticed in the pediatric population even without respiratory symptoms. In this study, 2 of 6 symptomatic patients had mild respiratory symptoms and 4 had unspecific symptoms. During this pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 infection should be considered as etiology in patients with acute neurological symptoms, with or without previous respiratory manifestations, particularly in teenagers.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Stroke , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Male , Mexico/epidemiology , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been widely reported to cause symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Neurologic complications have not been widely reported without associated respiratory symptoms. These neurologic manifestations have been found mostly in the elderly. There has been no report of ataxia or COVID-19 cerebellitis in the young adult population without associated respiratory symptoms. CASE REPORT: Here we report the case of a 30-year-old patient who presented with isolated cerebellar symptoms and was diagnosed with COVID-19 cerebellitis. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: It is important for emergency physicians to know that COVID-19 can have many clinical manifestations and to have a high level of suspicion with acute neurologic symptoms.