The mass vaccination against COVID-19 has saved millions of lives globally. The majority of people experience short-term mild side effects; however, in rare cases, some develop long-term severe adverse events. This case report illustrates the case of a middle-aged man with Parsonage–Turner syndrome, a rare adverse event following COVID-19 immunisation. The patient presented with pain and weakness of the right upper arm for 2 months, which developed 5 days after he received his mRNA COVID-19 booster vaccine. He sought medical attention after 9 weeks of experiencing weakness with obvious muscle wasting. He reported his condition only via a phone application, as he thought that his condition was self-limiting and will improve with time. Herein, we discuss the syndrome and highlight the importance of patient education and early recognition of serious adverse events related to vaccinations in the primary care setting.
COVID-19 Vaccines ; Brachial Plexus Neuritis ; Primary Health Care

Brachial Plexus Neuritis/etiology* ; COVID-19/prevention & control* ; Humans ; Vaccination/adverse effects*

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical features and recurrence factors of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibody disease in children and the effect of recurrence prevention regimens. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical data of 41 children with MOG antibody disease who were hospitalized in the Department of Pediatric Neurology, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, from December 2014 to September 2020. According to the presence or absence of recurrence, they were divided into a monophasic course group ( RESULTS: For these 41 children, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis was the most common initial manifestation and was observed in 23 children (56%). Of the 41 children, 22 (54%) experienced recurrence, with 57 recurrence events in total, among which optic neuritis was the most common event (17/57, 30%). The proportion of children in the recurrence group who were treated with corticosteroids for less than 3 months in the acute phase was higher than that in the monophasic course group (64% CONCLUSIONS More than half of the children with MOG antibody disease may experience recurrence. Most children with recurrence are treated with corticosteroids for less than 3 months in the acute phase. Rituximab and azathioprine may reduce the risk of recurrence.
Autoantibodies ; Child ; Humans ; Myelin-Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein ; Optic Neuritis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

A 6-year-old intact male Maltese dog presented with a history of blindness and ataxia. Neuro-ophthalmic examination revealed dilated pupils with absent pupillary light reflexes and menace response in both eyes. Mild peripapillary edema was noted in the fundus of the right eye. After magnetic resonance imaging, the dog was provisionally diagnosed with meningoencephalitis of unknown etiology. Follow-up funduscopy was performed to monitor the condition of the optic discs for three years. Despite of the treatment with prednisolone, the optic nerve progressed to atrophy and the dog couldn't restore vision.
Animals ; Ataxia ; Atrophy ; Blindness ; Child ; Dogs ; Edema ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Meningoencephalitis ; Optic Nerve ; Optic Neuritis ; Prednisolone ; Pupil ; Reflex

Iso-oncotic human serum albumin (HSA) is the primary replacement fluid of choice during therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE). Hypersensitivity reactions to HSA are rare, but require proper evaluation and management. In this article, we report two cases of hypersensitivity reactions to 5% HSA during TPE and discuss strategies to address this problem. The first case was a 60-year-old female patient, who was scheduled for TPE for treatment of recurrent focal segmental glomerulosclerosis after ABO-incompatible kidney transplantation. She developed a pruritic rash on her entire body during the first two sessions of TPE using 5% HSA. The third session was conducted using 500 mL normal saline, 1,000 mL 10% pentastarch, and 750 mL 5% HSA, where she eventually developed a pruritic rash when HSA was infused. There were no adverse events during the fourth and fifth session when fresh frozen plasma was used in place of HSA. The second case was a 50-year-old male patient diagnosed with optic neuritis, who was admitted for five sessions of TPE. The patient developed a pruritic rash on his entire body during the first session of TPE using 5% HSA. The patient experienced no adverse events during the following four sessions using fresh frozen plasma. Certain elements contained in HSA, such as albumin aggregates, prekallikrein activator, and caprylate-modified albumin, might be the reason for these hypersensitivity reactions. Careful selection of alternative replacement fluids is important to avoid premature termination of TPE procedures and secure optimal treatment options for patients.
Caprylates ; Exanthema ; Factor XIIa ; Female ; Glomerulosclerosis, Focal Segmental ; Humans ; Hydroxyethyl Starch Derivatives ; Hypersensitivity ; Kidney Transplantation ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Optic Neuritis ; Plasma Exchange ; Plasma ; Serum Albumin

BACKGROUND: Methyl alcohol poisoning in mobile phone–manufacturing factories during 2015–2016 was caused by methyl alcohol use for cleaning in computerized numerical control (CNC) processes. To determine whether there were health complications in other workers involved in similar processes, the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute conducted a survey. METHODS: We established a national active surveillance system by collaborating with the Ministry of Employment and Labor and National Health Insurance Service. Employment and national health insurance data were used. Overall, 12,048 employees of major domestic mobile phone companies and CNC process dispatch workers were surveyed from 2016 to 2017. We investigated methyl alcohol poisoning by using the national health insurance data. Questionnaires were used to investigate diseases due to methyl alcohol poisoning. RESULTS: Overall, 24.9% of dispatched workers were employed in at least five companies, and 23.9% of dispatched workers had missing employment insurance history data. The prevalence of blindness including visual impairment, optic neuritis, visual disturbances, and alcohol toxicity in the study participants was higher than that reported in the national health insurance database (0.02%, 0.07%, 0.23%, and 0.03% versus 0.01%, 0.07%, 0.13%, and 0.01%, respectively, in 2015). Moreover, 430 suspicious workers were identified; 415 of these provided an address and phone number, of whom 48 responded (response rate, 11.6%). Among the 48 workers, 10 had diseases at the time of the survey, of whom 3 workers were believed to have diseases related to methyl alcohol exposure. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that active surveillance data can be used to assess health problems related to methyl alcohol poisoning in CNC processes and dispatch workers.
Academies and Institutes ; Blindness ; Cell Phones ; Employment ; Insurance ; Mass Screening ; Methanol ; National Health Programs ; Occupational Diseases ; Occupational Health ; Optic Neuritis ; Poisoning ; Prevalence ; Vision Disorders

PURPOSE: To report a case of optic neuritis accompanied by optic perineuritis after retinalamin peribulbar injection. CASE SUMMARY: A 46-year-old Kazakhstan woman presented with sudden vision loss, headache, and pain in both eyes which began 2 hours after the peribulbar injection of retinalamin approximately 10 days prior to her initial visit. At the initial visit, the best-corrected visual acuity was light perception in both eyes. A fundus examination showed bilateral optic disc swelling and fluorescein angiography showed late-phase leakage around the optic nerve and optic nerve sheath enhancement. On brain magnetic resonance imaging, the tram track sign and donut sign were seen in both eyes. Steroid pulse therapy was started after the diagnosis of optic neuritis accompanied by optic perineuritis. After 6 months, the patient's visual acuity improved up to 0.8 in the right eye and 1.0 in the left eye. The light reflex was recovered, the relative afferent pupillary defect decreased, and there was no evidence of optic disc swelling. CONCLUSIONS: When an unverified drug injection is performed (e.g., retinalamin), it could result in complications such as optic neuritis and optic perineuritis from an allergic reaction or peribulbar injection trauma. In such cases, high-dose steroid pulse therapy may be considered.
Brain ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Fluorescein Angiography ; Headache ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Kazakhstan ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Optic Nerve ; Optic Neuritis ; Pupil Disorders ; Reflex ; Visual Acuity

Objective To evaluate the optic nerve impairment using MRI histogram texture analysis in the patients with optic neuritis.Methods The study included 60 patients with optic neuritis and 20 normal controls. The coronal T2 weighted imaging (T2WI) with fat saturation and enhanced T1 weighted imaging (T1WI) were performed to evaluate the optic nerve. MRI histogram texture features of the involved optic nerve were measured on the corresponding coronal T2WI images. The normal optic nerve (NON) was measured in the posterior 1/3 parts of the optic nerve. Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA was used to compare the difference of texture features and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of texture features for the optic nerve impairment among the affected optic nerve with enhancement (ONwEN), affected optic nerve without enhancement (ONwoEN), contralateral normal appearing optic nerve (NAON) and NON.Results The histogram texture Energy and Entropy presented significant differences for ONwEN vs. ONwoEN (both P=0.000), ONwEN vs. NON (both P=0.000) and NAON vs. NON (both P<0.05). ROC analysis demonstrated that the area under the curve (AUC) of histogram texture Energy were 0.758, 0.795 and 0.701 for ONwEN vs. ONwoEN, ONwEN vs. NON and NAON vs. NON, AUC of Entropy were 0.758, 0.795 and 0.707 for ONwEN vs. ONwoEN, ONwEN vs. NON and NAON vs. NON.Conclusions The altered MRI histogram texture Energy and Entropy could be considered as a surrogate for MRI enhancement to evaluate the involved optic nerve and normal-appearing optic nerve in optic neuritis.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Middle Aged ; Optic Nerve ; diagnostic imaging ; Optic Neuritis ; diagnostic imaging

OBJECTIVE: To select the optimized treatment plan of acupuncture for lateral femoral cutaneous neuritis by using multiple indexes decision-making method based on the clinical evidence. METHODS: The randomized control trials (RCTs) regarding acupuncture for lateral femoral cutaneous neuritis in the CNKI database, CBM database, WANFANG database, VIP database, PubMed, Cochrane Library and Embase published before December 31, 2017 were comprehensively collected. The modified Jadad scale was used to evaluate the quality of the RCTs. Then the evaluation indexes were selected and the dimensions of evaluation indexes were standardized by using extreme difference transformation method. The weight of each index was determined by using relative comparison method and the standardized matrix was weighted. Thus, the ideal solution and the negative ideal solution were obtained, and the relatively degree of each treatment plan to the ideal solution was calculated to propose the optimized plan of acupuncture for lateral femoral cutaneous neuritis. RESULTS: A total of 18 RCTs were included, the optimized plan of acupuncture for lateral femoral cutaneous neuritis was using thin fire needle to rapidly prick the abnormal skin region with fast needle insertion-withdrawal technique; the fire needle was applied repeatedly; intensive pricking to form a treatment area; the treatment was given once every 5 days. CONCLUSION Based on the current clinical evidence, the optimized plan of acupuncture for lateral femoral cutaneous neuritis is using thin fire needle to prick the abnormal skin region; the multiple methods of plum-blossom needling met the characteristic of lateral femoral cutaneous neuritis and is suitable for clinical selection. The main acupoints are points in the abnormal skin area or the acupoints in the foot- meridian and foot- meridian, combined with lumbar Jiaji (EX-B2) points.
Acupuncture Therapy ; Humans ; Meridians ; Needles ; Neuritis ; therapy ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic

PURPOSE: To describe the clinical characteristics and course of optic neuritis (ON) and its association with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) in Korea. METHODS: In this retrospective case series, 125 eyes of 91 Korean patients with ON were included. The medical documents of adult patients with ON were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were assigned into idiopathic ON, NMOSD, and MS groups according to the presence of an association with NMOSD or MS for subgroup analysis. Clinical characteristics, disease course, and visual and systemic prognosis were analyzed. RESULTS: During the mean follow-up of 3.7 years, 73 patients were diagnosed as idiopathic ON, 14 patients were diagnosed as NMOSD, and four patients developed definite MS. At the final visit, there were 13 (13%) eyes out of 100 eyes with idiopathic ON, nine (43%) eyes out of 21 eyes with NMOSD, and one (25%) eye out of four eyes with MS had a severe visual loss of 20 / 200 or less. The mean Expanded Disability Status Scale was 3.1 ± 1.5 in NMOSD and 1.8 ± 1.5 in the MS group at the final visit. In the NMOSD group, 50% of patients showed severe visual loss in at least one eye or were unable to ambulate without assistance at the final visit (5.3 ± 4.4 years after the initial episode of ON). CONCLUSIONS: Fourteen percent of patients showed positive results for NMO-immunoglobulin G test and 50% of patients with NMOSD showed a severe visual loss in at least one eye or were unable to ambulate without assistance. The proportion of MS was relatively low in Korean ON patients.
Adult ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Korea ; Multiple Sclerosis ; Neuromyelitis Optica ; Optic Neuritis ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies