Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2020 Oct:45:102377.
doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2020.102377. Epub 2020 Jul 7.

Multiple sclerosis following SARS-CoV-2 infection

M Palao  1 , E Fernández-Díaz  2 , J Gracia-Gil  2 , C M Romero-Sánchez  2 , I Díaz-Maroto  2 , T Segura  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Multiple sclerosis following SARS-CoV-2 infection

M Palao et al. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 infection can produce neurological features. The most common are headache, anosmia and dysgeusia but patients may also develop other central nervous system (CNS) injuries. We present a patient affected by Covid-19 who initially consulted for decreased visual acuity. The MRI showed inflammation in the right optic nerve and demyelinating lesions in the CNS. We speculate that an immune mechanism induced by SARS-CoV-2, which can activate lymphocytes and an inflammatory response, plays a role in the clinical onset of the disease. This pathogen may be associated with either the triggering or the exacerbation of inflammatory/demyelinating disease.

Keywords: COVID-19; Demyelinating disease; MHV-59; Optic neuritis; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this articles.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig. 1
Orbital MRI (A. axial B. coronal) contrast-enhanced T1 showing a right-sided optic nerve lesion with significant contrast enhancement.
Fig 2
Fig. 2
Brain MRI, FLAIR (A, B, C) and contrast-enhanced T1 (D) sequences showing supratentorial periventricular demyelinating lesions in left temporal (A) and right occipital lobe (B, C) with gadolinium enhancement (D).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. COVID-19 Map - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html (accessed May 10, 2020).
    1. Romero-Sánchez C.M., Díaz-Maroto I., Fernández-Díaz E. Neurologic manifestations in hospitalized patients with COVID-19: the ALBACOVID registry. Neurology. 2020 doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000009937. published online June 1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alberti P., Beretta S., Piatti M. Guillain-Barré syndrome related to COVID-19 infection. Neurol. - Neuroimmunol. Neuroinflammation. 2020;7:e741. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zanin L., Saraceno G., Panciani P.P. SARS-CoV-2 can induce brain and spine demyelinating lesions. Acta Neurochir. (Wien) 2020;162 (7):1–4. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhao H., Shen D., Zhou H., Liu J., Chen S. Guillain-Barré syndrome associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection: causality or coincidence? Lancet Neurol. 2020;19:383–384. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types