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. 2021 Jul;37(7):2305-2312.
doi: 10.1007/s00381-021-05104-z. Epub 2021 Mar 10.

Neurological manifestations temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in pediatric patients in Mexico

Areli Estela Sánchez-Morales  1 , Marta Urrutia-Osorio  1 , Esteban Camacho-Mendoza  1 , Gustavo Rosales-Pedraza  2 , Luis Dávila-Maldonado  3 , Alejandra González-Duarte  4 , Patricia Herrera-Mora  1 , Matilde Ruiz-García  5
Affiliations

Neurological manifestations temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in pediatric patients in Mexico

Areli Estela Sánchez-Morales et al. Childs Nerv Syst. 2021 Jul.

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.

Keywords: Acute cerebellar ataxia; Acute ischemic stroke; Anti-NMDA-R encephalitis; Children; Guillain-Barré syndrome; Optic neuritis; SARS-CoV-2.

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Conflict of interest statement

None

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