Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM)-like illness in a pediatric patient following COVID-19 vaccination
Open accessAbstract
Since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 60 cases of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) or ADEM-like clinically isolated syndromes have been linked to COVID-19 infection. However, cases linked to COVID-19 vaccination remain exceptionally rare. To the author’s knowledge, eight published cases of ADEM or ADEM-like clinically isolated syndrome have been described after patients received COVID-19 vaccinations, all of which occurred in adults. This report details the first documented case of an ADEM-like illness in a pediatric patient, which developed shortly after receiving the Pfizer (Pfizer-BioNTech, Germany) COVID-19 vaccination. The patient made a near complete clinical recovery over 10 days after receiving a 5-day course of intravenous immunoglobulin therapy.
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Although some case reports have suggested a possible association between COVID-19 vaccination and ADEM, there was no consistent pattern in terms of vaccine or timing following vaccination, and larger epidemiological studies have not confirmed any potential association.
“Although some case reports have suggested a possible association between COVID-19 vaccination and ADEM, there was no consistent pattern in terms of vaccine or timing following vaccination, and larger epidemiological studies have not confirmed any potential association [41 -44].”
From COVID-19 vaccines and adverse events of special interest: A multinational Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) cohort study of 99 million vaccinated individuals (2024) · cites this paper as [41]
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Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) following recent Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Faksova, K., Walsh, D., Jiang, Y., Griffin, J., Phillips, A., Gentile, A., Kwong, J. C., Macartney, K., Naus, M., Grange, Z., et al. (2024) · Vaccine · doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.100 · Cited by 212 · see citing works
“Although some case reports have suggested a possible association between COVID-19 vaccination and ADEM, there was no consistent pattern in terms of vaccine or timing following vaccination, and larger epidemiological studies have not confirmed any potential association [41 – 44].”
Result
- Authors
- Brock, K., Reyes, S. C., Conner, C., Gillson, N., Weiss, M., Elfituri, O., & Paydar, A.
- Affiliations
- Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (US)
- Aventura Hospital and Medical Center (US)
- Florida Radiology Consultants, Fort Myers, Florida, United States
- Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida (US)
- HealthPark Hospital, Fort Myers, Florida, United States
- MedStar Washington Hospital Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Brock, Kenneth
- ORCID
- Elfituri, Osama
- Venue
- BJR|case reports
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2023-03
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 20220097-20220097
- ISSN
- 2055-7159 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10043599
- OpenAlex
- W4318988121
- Cited by
- 6
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 1.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- BJR|case reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Peripheral Neuropathies and Disorders
- Keywords
- acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine adverse events, pediatric patients, clinically isolated syndrome, intravenous immunoglobulin, BNT162b2, neurological recovery
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