MRI negative myelopathy post mild SARS-CoV-2 infection: vasculopathy or inflammatory myelitis?

Abstract

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been rare reports of spinal cord pathology diagnosed as inflammatory myelopathy and suspected spinal cord ischemia after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Herein, we report five cases of clinical myelopathy and myeloradiculopathy in the setting of post-COVID-19 disease, which were all radiographically negative. Unlike prior reports which typically characterized hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 disease and critical illness, these patients typically had asymptomatic or mild-moderate COVID-19 disease and lacked radiologic evidence of structural spinal cord abnormality. This case series highlights that COVID-19 associated myelopathy is not rare, requires a high degree of clinical suspicion as imaging markers may be negative, and raises several possible pathophysiologic mechanisms.