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Review
. 2020 Dec;19(6):911-914.
doi: 10.1007/s12311-020-01177-9.

A First Case of Acute Cerebellitis Associated with Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): a Case Report and Literature Review

Nima Fadakar  1 , Sara Ghaemmaghami  1 , Seyed Masoom Masoompour  2 , Babak Shirazi Yeganeh  3 , Ali Akbari  4 , Sedighe Hooshmandi  5 , Vahid Reza Ostovan  6
Affiliations
Review

A First Case of Acute Cerebellitis Associated with Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): a Case Report and Literature Review

Nima Fadakar et al. Cerebellum. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2: SARS-CoV-2), which originated from Wuhan, China, has spread to the other countries in a short period of time. We report a 47-year-old male who was admitted to our hospital due to suffering from progressive vertigo and ataxia for 7 days prior to the admission. Neurological examination revealed cerebellar dysfunction, and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) depicted edema of the cerebellar hemisphere associated with leptomeningeal enhancement. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis showed mild lymphocytic pleocytosis, elevated protein, and lactate dehydrogenase. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in the oropharyngeal/nasopharyngeal and CSF specimens. As a result, treatment with lopinavir/ritonavir was initiated, and patient symptoms and signs improved significantly during the course of hospitalization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of acute cerebellitis associated with COVID-19 disease which is reported in the literature so far.

Keywords: Ataxia; COVID-19; Cerebellitis; Magnetic resonance imaging; SARS-COV-2; Vertigo.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a, c Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MR images showed hyperintensities and edema of the bilateral cerebellar hemispheres as well as vermis (black arrows). b, d Axial contrast-enhanced T1-weighted MR images showed cerebellar cortical-meningeal enhancement, corresponding to the region of cerebellar swelling (white arrows)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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