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
. 2022 Mar 21;4(1):10.
doi: 10.1186/s42466-022-00178-9.

Diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 vaccination associated rhombencephalitis requires comprehensive work-up and exclusion of differentials

Josef Finsterer  1   2 , Fulvio A Scorza  3 , Carla A Scorza  3 , Ana C Fiorini  3
Affiliations

Diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 vaccination associated rhombencephalitis requires comprehensive work-up and exclusion of differentials

Josef Finsterer et al. Neurol Res Pract. .

Abstract

In this letter we raise several concerns regarding the interesting article by Walter and Krämer about rhomb-encephalitis as a complication two months after the vaccination with an mRNA-based SARS-CoV_2 vaccine. The causal link between the vaccination and encephalitis remained unproven, a SARS-CoV-2 infection, Bickerstaff encephalitis were not excluded, the MRI rather suggests brainstem-encephlaitis than pure rhomb-encephalitis, and the cerebro-spinal fluid was not investigated for cytokines or glial markers. Neurologists are called to make all available effort to convincingly evaluate the etiology and the pathophysiological background of an undetermined condition.

Keywords: COVID-19; Encephalitis; Guillain–Barre syndrome; Immune-mediated; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccination.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

References

    1. Walter A, Kraemer M. A neurologist's rhombencephalitis after comirnaty vaccination. A change of perspective. Neurological Research and Practice. 2021;3(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s42466-021-00156-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zuhorn F, Graf T, Klingebiel R, Schäbitz WR, Rogalewski A. Seltene Enzephalitis nach Impfung gegen SARS-CoV-2 [Rare encephalitis after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2] Der Nervenarzt. 2021 doi: 10.1007/s00115-021-01205-x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Komiazyk M, Walory J, Gawor J, Ksiazek I, Gromadka R, Baraniak A. Case Report of COVID-19 after full vaccination: Viral loads and anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Diagnostics (Basel) 2021;11(10):1815. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11101815. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Finsterer J. Neurological side effects of SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica. 2021 doi: 10.1111/ane.13550. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pilotto A, Masciocchi S, Volonghi I, De Giuli V, Caprioli F, Mariotto S, Ferrari S, Bozzetti S, Imarisio A, Risi B, Premi E, Benussi A, Focà E, Castelli F, Zanusso G, Monaco S, Stefanelli P, Gasparotti R, Zekeridou A, McKeon A, Ashton NJ, BlennoW K, Zetterberg H, Padovani A. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) encephalitis is a cytokine release syndrome: Evidences from cerebrospinal fluid analyses. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2021;73(9):e3019–e3026. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1933. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources