Clinical and Radiological Follow-Up of a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine-Induced Hemichorea-Hemiballismus; Insights Into Mechanisms of Basal Ganglia Dysfunction

Tremor Other Hyperkinet Mov (N Y). 2022 May 18:12:17. doi: 10.5334/tohm.697. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Asymmetric chorea unrelated to structural lesions is typically due to systemic etiologies, such as metabolic, autoimmune, or other inflammatory disorders. This is an editorial commenting on a paper by Batot C, Chea M, Zeidan S, et al. Clinical and radiological follow up of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine-induced hemichorea-hemiballismus. Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements; 2022; 12(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/tohm.688. A 90-year-old patient is reported who developed hemichorea shortly after his second vaccination against COVID-19. Hypometabolism was noted in the contralateral striatum. This case provides potential insights and raises questions about mechanisms of immune-mediated hemichorea.

Keywords: COVID-19; chorea; hemiballismus; hemichorea; vaccination.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Editorial
  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Aged, 80 and over
  • BNT162 Vaccine
  • COVID-19* / complications
  • Chorea* / chemically induced
  • Chorea* / diagnostic imaging
  • Corpus Striatum
  • Dyskinesias* / diagnostic imaging
  • Dyskinesias* / etiology
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans

Substances

  • BNT162 Vaccine