A 31-year-old Spanish-speaking male with no significant past medical history presented to the emergency department (ED) with progressively worsening weakness, numbness, and difficulty walking. Approximately two months prior to presentation, he woke up and noticed some numbness in his right hand. One month later he noticed double vision. He started wearing an eye patch over one eye to help with symptoms of diplopia. He then started experiencing numbness in his right leg as well as left facial weakness with dysarthria. About a week later, his symptoms progressed to numbness on the left upper and lower extremity, which prompted a visit to an outside hospital. His workup was reportedly normal including a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and lumbar puncture. His weakness and bilateral paresthesias progressed to the point that he was unable to ambulate, which prompted his current visit. The patient denied any trauma, headache, neck stiffness, loss of vision, fever, cough, or any other infectious symptoms. He denied any recent travel, sick contacts, or contacts with similar complaints.\nOn presentation to the ED his vital signs were within normal limits, and with the exception of a malar facial rash and abnormal neurologic exam, his physical exam was unremarkable. On neurologic exam, he was awake, alert, and oriented appropriately. On primary gaze there was left-eye adduction and cranial nerve VI palsy bilaterally with extraocular movements and vertical nystagmus. He had a unilateral, lower motor neuron cranial nerve VII palsy with left upper and lower hemifacial weakness, and also cranial nerve XII dysfunction with tongue deviation to the left. Overall his motor bulk was normal and strength was 5/5 in flexor and extensor groups of all four extremities. His sensation was intact to light touch and pinprick in all extremities. He had significant dysmetria with finger-nose-finger and heel-to-shin bilaterally, slightly worse on the left with decreased amplitude and discoordination on finger tapping and other rapidly alternating movements bilaterally. All upper extremity reflexes were intact; however, he had no patellar or Achilles reflexes; he had downgoing plantar reflex on the left. and mute plantar reflex on the right. He was unable to stand or test gait secondary to significant ataxia.\nThe patient was admitted and underwent an extensive workup including infectious, autoimmune, paraneoplastic, metabolic, and neurologic testing. MRI of his brain and lumbar spine were unremarkable. A computed tomography of his chest looking for neoplasm revealed a consolidation in his left lower lobe that prompted SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction testing and returned positive. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) studies revealed the presence of anti-ganglioside – GQ1b (Anti-GQ1b) immunoglobulin G antibodies (1:100), with lymphocytic predominance without albuminocytologic dissociation, and he subsequently was found to have positive immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to COVID–19.\nThe patient was treated with convalescent plasma, tocilizumab, and intravenous immunoglobulin, in addition to extensive physical and occupational therapy. He had some mild subjective improvement in vision and coordination as well as return of patellar reflexes bilaterally; however, he required maximum assistance to ambulate on transfer to rehab facility.
A 26-year-old female patient with a past medical history of obesity, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and exercise-induced asthma presented to the emergency department with sudden onset of headache, vomiting, and right-sided numbness, and tingling. The patient underwent computed tomography (CT) angiography of the head and neck, which were unremarkable, and no vertebral artery dissection was seen. She was discharged with the diagnosis of migraine.\nShe developed worsening of her symptoms at home, presenting again to the emergency department with increasing right-sided numbness, weakness, and dysarthria. Vital signs were stable with no fever. The patient reported no respiratory symptoms and denied any recent head trauma or chiropractic neck manipulation. The neurological exam was significant for right-sided weakness, dysarthria, right-sided dysmetria, and gait ataxia. Chest X-ray showed no acute infiltrates. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed an acute right cerebellar infarct with the involvement of the right cerebellar peduncle (Figure ). Magnetic resonance angiography of the head revealed narrowing of the right superior cerebellar artery (Figure ). An echocardiogram with a bubble study was performed, as well as a part of a stroke workup, which showed a PFO. The lower extremity venous doppler ultrasound was negative for deep venous thrombosis. The laboratory test results are shown in Table .\nThe patient was screened for COVID-19 with a nasopharyngeal reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction due to increased reports of stroke in young patients nationwide, and the test came back as positive, to our surprise. Standard stroke treatments, including aspirin, clopidogrel, and high-intensity statins, were initiated for the patient. Enoxaparin for deep venous thrombosis prophylaxis was also prescribed.