COVID-19 vaccination and low cervical lymphadenopathy in the two week neck lump clinic - a follow up audit

Enlargement of a metastatic lymph node from differentiated thyroid cancer after COVID-19 vaccination

BACKGROUND

The massive vaccination campaign against COVID-19 has granted a high level of protection against the severe forms of the disease at the price of some mild adverse events.

OBJECTIVE

To underline that COVID-19 vaccination can induce a transient enlargement of lymph-node metastases in differentiated thyroid cancer patients.

CASE PRESENTATION

We describe the clinical, laboratory, and imaging features of a 60-year-old woman affected by paratracheal lymph-node relapse of Hurtle Cell Carcinoma who came to our attention after full COVID-19 vaccination because of neck swelling and pain. In April 2021, after 5 years of stable structural disease, the patient presented an enlargement of the metastatic lymph node, associated with a rise of serum thyroglobulin (from 4.6 to 14.7 pg/mL). Anti-inflammatory treatment was started and pain and swelling remitted after 15 days. At the subsequent evaluation, at neck ultrasound, the right paratracheal lesion was smaller and thyroglobulin dropped to 3.9 pg/mL.

CONCLUSIONS

We report the case of an enlargement of metastatic lymph node from differentiated thyroid cancer after COVID-19 vaccination. We warn clinicians to identify features of inflammatory response due to COVID-19 vaccination in order to prevent unwarranted surgical treatment.

Immune Response Related to Lymphadenopathy Post COVID-19 Vaccination

Mass vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global health strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic. With the increasing number of vaccinations, COVID-19 vaccine-associated lymphadenopathy (C19-VAL) has been frequently reported. Current findings emphasize the characteristics of C19-VAL. The mechanism of C19-VAL is complicated to explore. Accumulated reports separately show that C19-VAL incidence is associated with receiver age and gender, reactive change within lymph nodes (LN), etc. We constructed a systematic review to evaluate the associated elements of C19-VAL and provide the mechanism of C19-VAL. Articles were searched from PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE by using the processing of PRISMA. The search terms included combinations of the COVID-19 vaccine, COVID-19 vaccination and lymphadenopathy. Finally, sixty-two articles have been included in this study. Our results show that days post-vaccination and B cell germinal center response are negatively correlated with C19-VAL incidence. The reactive change within LN is highly related to C19-VAL development. The study results suggested that strong vaccine immune response may contribute to the C19-VAL development and perhaps through the B cell germinal center response post vaccination. From the perspective of imaging interpretation, it is important to carefully distinguish reactive lymph nodes from metastatic lymph node enlargement through medical history collection or evaluation, especially in patients with underlying malignancy.

Post-pandemic healthcare for COVID-19 vaccine: Tissue-aware diagnosis of cervical lymphadenopathy via multi-modal ultrasound semantic segmentation

With the widespread deployment of COVID-19 vaccines all around the world, billions of people have benefited from the vaccination and thereby avoiding infection. However, huge amount of clinical cases revealed diverse side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, among which cervical lymphadenopathy is one of the most frequent local reactions. Therefore, rapid detection of cervical lymph node (LN) is essential in terms of vaccine recipients' healthcare and avoidance of misdiagnosis in the post-pandemic era. This paper focuses on a novel deep learning-based framework for the rapid diagnosis of cervical lymphadenopathy towards COVID-19 vaccine recipients. Existing deep learning-based computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) methods for cervical LN enlargement mostly only depend on single modal images, e.g., grayscale ultrasound (US), color Doppler ultrasound, and CT, while failing to effectively integrate information from the multi-source medical images. Meanwhile, both the surrounding tissue objects of the cervical LNs and different regions inside the cervical LNs may imply valuable diagnostic knowledge which is pending for mining. In this paper, we propose an Tissue-Aware Cervical Lymph Node Diagnosis method (TACLND) via multi-modal ultrasound semantic segmentation. The method effectively integrates grayscale and color Doppler US images and realizes a pixel-level localization of different tissue objects, i.e., lymph, muscle, and blood vessels. With inter-tissue and intra-tissue attention mechanisms applied, our proposed method can enhance the implicit tissue-level diagnostic knowledge in both spatial and channel dimension, and realize diagnosis of cervical LN with normal, benign or malignant state. Extensive experiments conducted on our collected cervical LN US dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods on both tissue detection and cervical lymphadenopathy diagnosis. Therefore, our proposed framework can guarantee efficient diagnosis for the vaccine recipients' cervical LN, and assist doctors to discriminate between COVID-related reactive lymphadenopathy and metastatic lymphadenopathy.

Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination

A previously healthy Japanese woman in her 20s was admitted to our hospital with a 2-week history of fever (39.0°C) and a 1-week history of painful cervical lymphadenopathy. The day before fever onset, she had received her first Pfizer-BioNTech SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in her left arm. She had previously been treated with empirical antibiotics with no improvement. Physical examination revealed painful lymphadenopathy in both posterior cervical regions. CT showed symmetrical lymphadenopathies in the neck, supraclavicular, axillary and inguinal regions as well as hepatosplenomegaly. We suspected lymphoma and performed a lymph node biopsy in the right inguinal region, which revealed necrotising histiocytic lymphadenitis. The patient was, therefore, diagnosed with Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD). She improved after the corticosteroid therapy. This report highlights the importance of including KFD as a differential diagnosis of lymphadenopathy after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Additionally, lymph node biopsy is helpful for diagnosing KFD because it rules out other entities.

COVID-19 vaccine associated cervical lymphadenopathy: a case series

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 is an evolving worldwide pandemic causing significant morbidity and mortality. COVID-19 vaccinations have been developed to increase immunity against the virus. In New Zealand, the Pfizer BioNTech mRNA vaccine has been provisionally approved for use. Axillary lymphadenopathy is a recognized side effect of the mRNA vaccine, however cervical lymphadenopathy has also been reported. Due to a wide range of differential diagnoses, the finding of cervical lymphadenopathy requires thorough investigation which can include imaging and invasive diagnostic procedures.

METHODS

Five patients were identified by otorhinolaryngology (ORL) consultants at Whangarei Base Hospital and Waikato Hospital between 15/7/2021 and 21/12/2021 after being investigated through high suspicion of cancer triage pathways set by the New Zealand Ministry of Health. Inclusion criteria were adult patients with cervical lymphadenopathy following vaccination. Exclusion criteria were no history of vaccination or lymphadenopathy present before vaccination.

RESULTS

All patients were identified to have cervical lymphadenopathy on radiological imaging and a recent history of COVID-19 vaccination with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Interval vaccination to fine needle aspiration time ranged between 41 and 76 days. All patients had cytological or histological diagnosis showing reactive findings or interval imaging showing resolution of lymphadenopathy.

CONCLUSION

With increasing levels of COVID-19 vaccination and booster vaccinations we will continue to see cases of COVID-19 vaccine associated cervical lymphadenopathy. We highlight the importance of taking a COVID-19 vaccination history and including COVID-19 associated cervical lymphadenopathy in the differential diagnosis of presentation with a neck lump.

Rapid progression of marginal zone B-cell lymphoma after COVID-19 vaccination (BNT162b2): A case report

B-cell lymphomas are neoplastic diseases occasionally associated with chronic inflammation. mRNA vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) induce inflammatory responses, which often lead to fever and lymphadenopathies indistinguishable from lymphomas. Although both lymphadenopathies and lymphomas can be influential, the correlation between them is unclear. Herein, we present the first case of marginal zone B-cell lymphoma following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. An 80-year-old Japanese woman presented with a right temporal mass that appeared the morning after she was administered her first mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (BNT162b2). The mass gradually decreased in size but persisted over 6 weeks after her first vaccination (3 weeks after her second vaccination). At her first visit to our hospital, ultrasound revealed the size of the mass to be 28.5 × 5.7 mm, and computed tomography revealed multiple lymphadenopathies in the right parotid, submandibular, jugular, and supraclavicular regions. Initially, we suspected head-and-neck benign lymphadenopathy as a side effect of vaccination. Nine weeks later, the number of swollen submandibular and parotid glands increased, and the lymph nodes further enlarged. Finally, the right temporal mass was diagnosed as marginal zone B-cell lymphoma based on immunohistochemical and flow cytometry findings of biopsy specimens. Our findings suggest that although 4–6 weeks of observation for lymph node inflammation after the second vaccination is recommended, malignancy should also be considered in the differential diagnosis of lymphadenopathy following vaccination.

Ocular Inflammatory Reactions following an Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine: A Four Case Series

PURPOSE

To report a four-case series of ocular adverse events post an inactivated COVID-19 vaccination in China.

METHODS

The four patients exhibited ocular inflammatory reactions on the same day after receiving an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

RESULTS

All patients underwent detailed ophthalmic examinations, with the medical diagnosis of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada, Ponser-Schlossman, secondary post-inflammatory glaucoma, and iridocyclitis, respectively. No patients had any other underlying medical conditions causing the ocular complications. The ocular inflammatory reactions of these four patients were resolved with the administration of oral or topical corticosteroids.

CONCLUSION

Our cases remind the ophthalmologist that adverse ocular events may happen after the administration of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Since the ocular complications could be resolved with the corticosteroid treatment, the events were considered to be inflammatory reactions caused by the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

COVID-19 post-vaccination lymphadenopathy: Report of cytological findings from fine needle aspiration biopsy

The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the rapid development of vaccines, with vaccination programmes already underway in many countries. Regional lymphadenopathy is one of the documented side effects of vaccination. We document the fine needle aspiration cytological findings of an enlarged supraclavicular lymph node in a 34-year-old Asian female following the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, which appears to be the first such report in a premorbidly well patient with no known history of malignancy. The cytological findings featured a reactive pattern in keeping with follicular hyperplasia, with prominent germinal centre elements including lymphohistiocytic aggregates and tingible-body macrophages. Despite an increased proportion of larger lymphocytes, the overall pattern was in keeping with a reactive pattern, bearing in mind the temporal and geographic relation to the vaccination injection. In instances of localised lymphadenopathy, particularly in supraclavicular or axillary locations, pathologists should be cognizant of the possibility of post-vaccination reactive lymphadenopathy, and seek clinical and radiological hints favouring a benign process, whilst recognising potential morphological overlaps with lymphoproliferative disorders. Awareness of this diagnostic pitfall is especially important as COVID-19 vaccination coverage is ramped up worldwide, leading to an expected increase in incidence of post-vaccination reactive lymphadenopathy.

COVID-19 vaccine-related axillary lymphadenopathy in breast cancer patients: Case series with a review of literature

Purpose

Lymphadenopathy (LAP) after COVID-19 vaccination in patients with a diagnosis of cancer has been challenging. We analyzed imaging and clinical features from early cases of axillary LAP in six COVID-19 vaccine recipients with a history of breast cancer.

Method

Among the patients with a history of breast cancer and recent COVID-19 vaccine administration, six patients who showed isolated axillary LAP were gathered. Radiologic features were reviewed from breast ultrasound, chest computed tomography, and breast magnetic resonance imaging. Clinical and pathological information were obtained for analysis.

Results

The interval between ultrasound detection of LAP and last COVID-19 vaccine administration ranged from 14 to 28 days (mean 21.67 days). Round shape of the lymph node and irregular cortex were noted in 2 and 0 cases, respectively. Mean maximum cortical thickness, length to width ratio and interval aggravation in maximum cortical thickening were 4.2 mm, 1.34, and 2.81-fold with cut-off value of 3 mm, 1.5, 2.0-fold, respectively.

Conclusion

We observed axillary LAP ipsilateral to a recent vaccine administration persisting longer than what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced. In our patients, COVID-19 vaccine-related LAP tended to show increased cortical thickness without cortical irregularity. Oncologist as well as radiologist should be familiar with the fact that COVID-19 vaccines, regardless of vaccine type or dosage, can frequently cause ipsilateral axillary LAP, showing some suspicious features more often than others, and can persist longer than anticipated so that both over- and underdiagnosis can be avoided. We report our observations in six patients and provide an exhaustive review of the published literature