Transverse myelitis (TM) & vaccination
Nervous system
[Media July 2006] Legal aid victory for paralysed MMR boy
News: Roadblocks frustrate Little Al (hep B reaction)
Dr. Derek Smith. A neurologist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, Smith had been retained to testify for people with transverse myelitis, a potentially paralyzing neurological disorder. Smith said he was "highly confident" that the tetanus vaccine could trigger the ailment in certain vulnerable individuals. Officials with the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program strongly disagreed. Then Smith quit. According to court papers and interviews, Smith decided to bail out after complaints were lodged with his superiors by three other experts with a long history of testifying for the government in vaccine court.....Early in 2002, Smith was informed (that he) "was ruining his reputation by his testimony in the vaccine program," ...Wary of antagonizing people who could affect his career, Smith decided to drop out after testifying in one last case, .....Smith was told in so many words that he was jeopardizing his access to research funding. [Media, 29 Nov 2004] Witnesses for Petitioners Are Often Tough to Find
[2006] Paralysed children's legal
fight over MMR Shane Lambert and Fadi Khawaja both developed
transverse myelitis - an incurable disease of the spine - after being
given the injection. Shane, now 11, received the MMR jab at
13 months old, and is now doubly incontinent and wheelchair bound.
Fadi, now 22, was given the vaccine when he was 10. He can now only walk
small distances using crutches and suffers a range of debilitating
health problems. "Fadi was perfectly healthy and running around until he
had the vaccine," his mother said.....Mario Arturo Rodriguez, from
Washington, developed transverse myelitis after he had the jab at one
year old. Now seven, he was given the money from the American
government's National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to pay for a
lifetime of round-the-clock-care.
James Merow, the senior judge in Mario's case, echoed these views
when he concluded: "There is a wealth of persuasive support....for the
proposition that the MMR vaccine can cause transverse myelitis.." But
the Department of Health said there is "no established link" between the
MMR vaccine and transverse myelitis
Abdennebi A, Dumas JL, Salama J, Benromdhane H, Belin C, Goldlust D. [Postvaccination myelitis. Aspect and course followed by MRI]J Radiol. 1996 May;77(5):363-6. French.PMID: 8762935 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Fescharek R, et al (1995) Transverse myelitis unlikely to be due to measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. BMJ. 1995 Dec 16;311(7020):1642. No abstract available. PMID: 8555831; UI: 96111884.
Joyce KA, et al. Transverse myelitis after measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. BMJ. 1995 Aug 12;311(7002):422. No abstract available.PMID: 7640590; UI: 95367940.
Karaali-Savrun F, Altintas A, Saip S, Siva A. Hepatitis B vaccine related-myelitis?Eur J Neurol. 2001 Nov;8(6):711-5.PMID: 11784358 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Larner
AJ, Farmer SF. Myelopathy following influenza vaccination in
inflammatory CNS disorder treated with chronic immunosuppression. Eur
J Neurol. 2000 Nov;7(6):731-3. PMID: 11136365 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
We report a patient who developed a transverse myelitis with Brown-Sequard syndrome
following a prophylactic influenza vaccination, despite being chronically immunosuppressed
for a steroid-responsive optic neuropathy. Although influenza vaccination is recommended
in patients receiving chronic immunosuppression, its use may on occasion be associated
with neurological complications previously reported in immunocompetent individuals.
Renard
JL, Guillamo JS, Ramirez JM, Taillia H, Felten D, Buisson Y. Presse Med 1999 Jul
3-10;28(24):1290-2 [No title available].[Article in French] Clinique de neurologie, HIA
Val-de-Grace, Paris. [Medline record in process]
BACKGROUND: The cause and effect relationship between anti-HBV
immunization using recombinant vaccine and the development of a neurological event,
including flare-ups of multiple sclerosis, is a widely debated issue.
CASE REPORT: A previously asymptomatic 16-year-old girl was a hyper-responder to anti-HBV
vaccine. Subsequent to a booster shot of anti-HBV recombinant vaccine, she developed
regressive acute cervical transverse myelitis with intrathecal oligochonal IgG secretion
and a hypersignal on the MRI T2 sequences of the cord.
DISCUSSION: The distinction between a first episode of multiple sclerosis or post-vaccinal
acute myelitis in this case will depend upon subsequent course, but this observation
points out the very high level of persistent post-vaccinal immunization which can be
acquired by a hyper-responder. PMID: 10442059, UI: 99370647
Tezzon
F, Tomelleri P, Ferrari G, Sergi A. Acute radiculomyelitis after
antitetanus vaccination.Ital J Neurol Sci. 1994 May;15(4):191-3.
Review.PMID: 7960672 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
We report the assessment by MRI of a case of radiculomyelitis after
vaccination against tetanus-poliomyelitis. In the acute stage the appearance was an
isolated myelitis of the conus medullaris with contrast enhancement. The upper thoracic
cord presented central areas of high signal intensity on T2 weighted images. Rapid
clinical recovery was correlated with resolution of abnormal enhancement. Follow-up MR at
5 months showed persistence of slight T2 prolongation in the conus medullaris and
syringohydromyela of the thoracic cord. A single lesion of the spinal cord is a rare
presentation of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, the course of such lesions, to date
not previously displayed by MR, is unknown. Proper diagnosis should help prevent
administration of further vaccine doses.