Project description:The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the rapid development of vaccines against this disease. Despite the success of the international vaccination program, adverse events following vaccination, and the mechanisms behind them, remain poorly understood. Here we present four cases of death following receipt of a second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, with no obvious cause identified at autopsy. Using RNA sequencing, we identified genes that were differentially expressed between our post-vaccination cases and a control group that died of blood loss and strangulation. Three hundred and ninety genes were found to be upregulated and 115 genes were downregulated in post-vaccination cases compared with controls. Importantly, genes involved in neutrophil degranulation and cytokine signaling were upregulated. Our results suggest that immune dysregulation occurred following vaccination. Careful observation and care may be necessary if an abnormally high fever exceeding 40°C occurs after vaccination, even with antipyretic drugs.
Project description:BackgroundThe advent of vaccination against COVID-19 brought great expectations for the control of the pandemic. As novel vaccines, much of the associated side effects were unknown. Currently, an increasing number of reports from side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have been published, namely on cutaneous reactions. These are of utmost importance to increase our knowledge about possible undesirable effects and its prevention.MethodsWe describe a series of 3 cases who presented with varicella zoster virus (VZV) reactivation following the first dose of 3 different COVID-19 vaccines.ResultsThree patients sought their Family Doctor after developing typical lesions of VZV reactivation, following a period of 3-13 days after COVID-19 vaccination. None was under immunosuppressive therapy. The 3 patients recovered in a few weeks and the subsequent doses of the vaccines were administered, without recurrence of the symptoms.ConclusionsThese cases highlight the possibility of VZV reactivation after the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines. Family Doctors should be aware of this event and play an important role informing and reassuring local communities for this possible vaccine reaction.
Project description:Background and objectivesAccording to some reports, there is a link between the development of myocarditis and the administration of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Here, we report seven cases that developed myocarditis after receiving a second dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.MethodsThis is a multi-center case series study. In this study, we present 7 patients diagnosed with myocarditis following BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccinations on March 7, 2021, and March 3, 2022.ResultsAll seven patients were males and hemodynamically stable. The median age was 24.5 years, ranging from 16 to 36 years old. All patients received the second dose of a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine between one and four days before being admitted to the hospital (5 received BNT162b2 [Pfizer-BioNTech] and 2 received mRNA-1273 [Moderna]). The electrocardiograms of all seven patients were abnormal, and their troponin levels were elevated. Moreover, all patients were treated with colchicine and NSAIDs. The average length of stay in the hospital was 2.4 days, and all of the patients' symptoms had resolved by the time they were discharged.ConclusionThe results of the current study raise the possibility of an association between BNT162b2 [Pfizer-BioNTech] or mRNA-1273 [Moderna] COVID-19 vaccination and myocarditis.
Project description:IntroductionImmune response following viral infections has been suggested as a probable mechanism leading to subacute thyroiditis (SAT). A few cases of SAT following SARS-CoV-2 infection have been described since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2019. Cases of SAT after vaccination against influenza have also been reported. We describe two female patients with thyroiditis after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2.Presentation of casesThe first patient presented with fever and pain in the thyroid area typical of SAT two weeks after vaccination with the BNT162B2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) COVID-19 vaccine. The second patient presented with biochemical and imaging features consistent with silent thyroiditis three weeks after vaccination with the ChAdOx1-S (AstraZeneca) vaccine. Both patients were asymptomatic prior to vaccination and PCR of nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses associated with SAT was negative. Serology testing for measles, mumps, rubella, CMV and EBV viruses was suggestive of immunity. Antibody titre against spike S protein of SARS-CoV-2 was measured for both patients and was indicative of adequate post vaccination antibody response. Two months after initial assessment, both patients were euthyroid and asymptomatic.ConclusionsSubacute as well as silent thyroiditis may rarely occur after vaccination against COVID-19. Further research is needed to investigate the prevalence and pathogenesis of thyroid dysfunction following vaccination against COVID-19.
Project description:Literature describing patients with concomitant COVID-19 infection with acute appendicitis in pediatric patients is growing, and understanding the clinical picture of such patients is relevant in their treatment. We report 3 male children who were surgically treated for acute appendicitis and had concomitant SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our first patient was a 12-year-old male who presented with symptoms indicative of appendicitis but no respiratory symptoms associated with COVID-19 (eg cough, shortness of breath). Laboratory evaluation revealed leukopenia and an elevated C-reactive protein; imaging was consistent with acute appendicitis and an acute pulmonary viral infection. Though he lacked diffuse peritonitis on physical examination or a leukocytosis, he was found to have perforated appendicitis in the operating room. Our second patient was another 12-year-old male whose suspected appendicitis was confirmed via ultrasound and surgery. He tested positive for COVID-19 1 month prior and he continued to test positive for infection on admission without any associated respiratory symptoms. Our third patient was a 13-year-old patient who also presented with symptomatic acute appendicitis without apparent COVID-19 manifestations. These cases provide further examples of pediatric patients with concomitant acute appendicitis and COVID-19 infection, namely an unusual presentation of perforated appendicitis with asymptomatic COVID-19-related pulmonary infection and the more common acute appendicitis with asymptomatic COVID-19 infection.
Project description:BackgroundVarious cutaneous manifestations have been observed in patients with COVID-19 infection. However, overall similarities in the clinical presentation of these dermatological manifestations have not yet been summarized.ObjectiveThis review aims to provide an overview of various cutaneous manifestations in patients with COVID-19 through three case reports and a literature review.MethodsA literature search was conducted using PubMed, OVID, and Google search engines for original and review articles. Studies written in the English language that mentioned cutaneous symptoms and COVID-19 were included.ResultsEighteen articles and three additional cases reported in this paper were included in this review. Of these studies, 6 are case series and 12 are case report studies. The most common cutaneous manifestation of COVID-19 was found to be maculopapular exanthem (morbilliform), presenting in 36.1% (26/72) patients. The other cutaneous manifestations included: a papulovesicular rash (34.7%, 25/72), urticaria (9.7%, 7/72), painful acral red purple papules (15.3%, 11/72) of patients, livedo reticularis lesions (2.8%, 2/72) and petechiae (1.4%, 1/72). Majority of lesions were localized on the trunk (66.7%, 50/72), however, 19.4% (14/72) of patients experienced cutaneous manifestations in the hands and feet. Skin lesion development occurred before the onset of respiratory symptoms or COVID-19 diagnosis in 12.5% (9/72) of the patients, and lesions spontaneously healed in all patients within 10 days. Majority of the studies reported no correlation between COVID-19 severity and skin lesions.ConclusionInfection with COVID-19 may result in dermatological manifestations with various clinical presentations, which may aid in the timely diagnosis of this infection.
Project description:In this report, we present the case of a 66-year-old man who received local consolidation radiotherapy to the right lung and mediastinum for oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following partial response to upfront chemoimmunotherapy. He continued with maintenance immunotherapy and was asymptomatic for eight months after completing radiation therapy. He then developed symptoms consistent with pneumonitis within three to five days of his first administration of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine injection. He reported that these symptoms significantly intensified within three to five days of receiving his second dose of the vaccine. The clinical time frame and radiographic evidence raised suspicion for radiation recall pneumonitis (RRP). Patients undergoing maintenance immunotherapy after prior irradiation may be at increased risk of this phenomenon that may be triggered by the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Project description:Severe lung damage in COVID-19 is known to involve complex interactions between diverse populations of immune and stromal cells. The pneumonitis manifesting in COVID-19 and acute respiratory distress syndrome results in spatially heterogenous manifestations of injury, such as infiltrates, loss of epithelial integrity and fibrosis. In this study, we applied a spatial transcriptomics approach to better delineate the cells, pathways and genes responsible for promoting and perpetuating severe tissue pathology in COVID-19 pneumonitis. Guided by tissue histology and multiplex immunofluorescence, we performed a targeted sampling of dozens of regions representing a spectrum of diffuse alveolar damage (mild to severe) from the post-mortem lung of three COVID-19 patients. These microscopic sites of injury had varying known compositions of CD3+ lymphocytes, CD68+ myeloid cells and panCK+ epithelial cells. DCC files are the processed sequencing files using the NanoString DND pipeline. The "Initial Dataset.xlsx" is represents raw gene counts for each probe replicate (n=47). "Post Biological Probe QC.xlsx" removes a sample (n=46) with failed sequencing (no rawReads) and conducts biological probe quality controls to collapse probe replicates into a single count per target gene using the GeoMx Analysis suite (version 2.1.0.102). "qn.exprs.tsv" is the matrix of quantile normalised gene expression by segment (n=46) and "qn.exprs.corrected.tsv" is the matrix of quantile normalised and batch corrected matrix of gene expression by segment (n=46). Rendered multichannel immunofluorescent microscopy png images corresponding to each area of interest (AOI with the acquistion borders outlined in white) are included. Further images can be made available upon request.