COVID-19 Associated Transient Cytotoxic Lesion of the Corpus Callosum: Report of Two Cases and Current Literature Review

Abstract

Cytotoxic lesion of the corpus callosum (CLOCC) stems from a variety of causes such as malignancies, drug treatments, metabolic disorders, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and infections, and often presents as encephalitis or encephalopathy. During this pandemic, we saw 2 cases with this lesion; the first one was a 42-year-old male who presented to the emergency department with complaints of headache, fever, and cough. There was a ground-glass opacity in the thorax computed tomography, and diffusion restriction was found in the corpus callosum splenium in the cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed for headache that did not resolve with analgesic treatment during hospitalization due to the preliminary diagnosis of Coronavirus diseases-2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. In the second case, Severe Acute Respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 polymerase chain reaction was found to be positive in the examinations performed during his admission to the emergency service due to weakness and presyncope, and diffusion restriction was observed in the corpus callosum splenium like the first case in cranial imaging. The follow-up cranial MRI was normal in both cases, so they were diagnosed with CLOCC. We aimed to report the present cases with COVID-19 associated CLOCC since they presented only as a headache and a presyncope without any mental deterioration.

Keywords

• covid-19
• splenium
• corpus callosum
• headache
• presyncope