Study Highlights Increased Risk of Acute Transverse Myelitis Following COVID-19 Vaccination in Korea

This study, led by Eunsun Lim and Yoo Hwan Kim and colleagues from prominent academic medical centers plus affiliation with Korea's COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Committee (CoVaSC), investigated the association between acute transverse myelitis (ATM) and COVID-19 vaccination using a self-controlled case series (SCCS) design. Utilizing the comprehensive Korean COVID-19 vaccine registry and national health claims database, the researchers analyzed 159 patients diagnosed with ATM within 42 days of vaccination between February 2021 and August 2022. They calculated the incidence rate ratio (IRR) and examined differences across vaccine types, demographic subgroups, and comorbidity scores.
Acute Transverse Myelitis is&nbsp;a neurological condition where the spinal cord experiences sudden inflammation, damaging the protective myelin sheath that covers nerve fibers, leading to symptoms like weakness, numbness, tingling, and potential bladder/bowel dysfunction, usually occurring due to an immune system malfunction that attacks the spinal cord, sometimes triggered by a viral infection;&nbsp;it can manifest quickly and may affect different areas of the body depending on the location of the spinal cord inflammation.