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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 13
| Issue : 4 | Page : 261-262 |
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Acute hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis in COVID-19 infection
Mansoor C Abdulla
Department of General Medicine, Nizar Hospital, Valanchery, Kerala, India
| Date of Submission | 10-Jun-2022 |
| Date of Decision | 20-Jun-2022 |
| Date of Acceptance | 25-Jun-2022 |
| Date of Web Publication | 18-Oct-2022 |
Correspondence Address:
Mansoor C Abdulla
Department of General Medicine, Nizar Hospital, Valanchery, Kerala
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/injms.injms_71_22
How to cite this article:
Abdulla MC. Acute hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis in COVID-19 infection. Indian J Med Spec 2022;13:261-2 |
Dear Editor,
A 60-year-old woman presented with altered mental status for 1 day. She was admitted in an outside hospital with fever, dry cough, and fatigue 2 weeks back. She was diagnosed to have COVID-19 (nasal swab reverse transcriptase-polymerase positive) and was discharged after 1 week of hospital stay. She had type 2 diabetes and systemic hypertension for 5 years. Examination on admission showed Glasgow Coma Score 7/15 (E2V1M4), and there was a paucity of movements on the right side.
Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showed areas of T2 and fluid attenuation inversion recovery hyperintensities involving the subcortical deep white matter and cortex in the bilateral frontoparietal, right temporal, and left occipital areas and right cerebellum. Susceptibility-weighted images showed punctate hemorrhages in the bilateral frontoparietal regions. Diffusion-weighted imaging demonstrated only limited areas of restricted diffusion. Postcontrast images showed areas of enhancement involving cortical and subcortical regions in few areas [Figure 1]. Three-dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography and magnetic resonance venogram were normal. These findings suggested a diagnosis of acute hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis (AHLE). Cerebrospinal fluid showed lymphocytic pleocytosis with increased protein. She was treated with methylprednisolone 1 g daily and antiedema measures. The patient showed no improvement and was not willing for any further treatment. | Figure 1: Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showing areas of T2 and fluid attenuation inversion recovery hyperintensities involving the subcortical deep white matter and cortex in the bilateral frontoparietal, right temporal, and left occipital areas and right cerebellum (a-d). Susceptibility-weighted images showing punctate hemorrhages in bilateral frontoparietal regions (e and f). Diffusion-weighted imaging (g-i) and corresponding apparent diffusion coefficient maps (j-l) showing limited areas of restricted diffusion
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Neurological manifestations in COVID-19 are considered secondary to direct viral cytopathic effect on neurons, immune-mediated inflammation, and development of intracranial cytokine storm.[1] AHLE is a rare monophasic demyelinating and severe form of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis with poor prognosis.[2] The case reminds the readers of an extremely rare complication of an on-going pandemic.
Declaration of patient consent
The authors certify that they have obtained all appropriate patient consent forms. In the form the patient(s) has/have given his/her/their consent for his/her/their images and other clinical information to be reported in the journal. The patients understand that their names and initials will not be published and due efforts will be made to conceal their identity, but anonymity cannot be guaranteed.
Financial support and sponsorship
None.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Perrin P, Collongues N, Baloglu S, Bedo D, Bassand X, Lavaux T, et al. Cytokine release syndrome-associated encephalopathy in patients with COVID-19. Eur J Neurol 2021;28:248-58.  |
| 2. | Varadan B, Shankar A, Rajakumar A, Subramanian S, Sathya AC, Hakeem AR, et al. Acute hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis in a COVID-19 patient – A case report with literature review. Neuroradiology 2021;63:653-61. |
[Figure 1]
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