Etiological spectrum, clinico-radiological profile and treatment outcomes of longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis - A prospective study from Northwest India

Post-COVID-19 Longitudinally Extensive Transverse Myelitis with Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein Antibodies

Background

Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibody disease most commonly presents with optic neuritis, though myelitis is also possible. It is rare in the post-infectious and particularly post-COVID-19 setting. Case Presentation. We present the case of a 57-year-old man who tested positive for COVID-19 and experienced respiratory symptoms that completely resolved within one week. About 3 weeks after testing positive, he began experiencing acute onset anuria, followed by lower extremity paresthesia and paraparesis, which progressed to bilateral lower extremity paraplegia, complete loss of sensation of pain, temperature, vibration, and proprioception, and a T4 sensory level. He was initially diagnosed with and treated for acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP), after which he made minimal clinical improvement. The diagnosis was shifted to longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis, and his CSF tested positive for MOG antibodies. He is being treated with a steroid regimen and extensive outpatient physical therapy.

Conclusion

The neurologic manifestations of COVID-19 are still being uncovered. Neurologic symptoms should be included in patient education on symptom monitoring, even after recovery of respiratory illness, so that COVID-19-related CNS pathology can be urgently treated.

Comparisons of clinical phenotype, radiological and laboratory features, and therapy of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder by regions: update and challenges

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) associated with autoantibody (ab) to aquaporin-4 (AQP4). There is obvious variation between regions and countries in the epidemiology, clinical features and management in NMOSD. Based on published population-based observation and cohort studies, the different clinical pattern of NMOSD has been seen in several geographical regions and some of these patients with NMOSD-like features do not fully meet the current diagnostic criteria, which is needed to consider the value of recently revised diagnostic criteria. At present, all treatments applied in NMOSD have made great progress, however, these treatments failed in AQP4 ab negative and refractory patients. Therefore, it is necessary to turn into an innovative idea and to open a new era of NMOSD treatment to develop novel and diverse targets and effective therapeutic drugs in NMOSD and to conduct the trails in large clinical samples and case-control studies to confirm their therapeutic effects on NMOSD in the future, which still remain a challenge.