Vaccines (May 2023)

Graves’ Disease after mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination, with the Presence of Autoimmune Antibodies Even One Year Later

  • Fuminori Nakamura,
  • Toru Awaya,
  • Masahiro Ohira,
  • Yoshinari Enomoto,
  • Masao Moroi,
  • Masato Nakamura

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11050934
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 5
p. 934

Abstract

Read online

A 45-year-old man who had received his second mRNA COVID-19 vaccination one week earlier was presented to the emergency department with chest discomfort. Therefore, we suspected post-vaccination myocarditis; however, the patient showed no signs of myocarditis. After 2 weeks, he revisited the hospital complaining of palpitations, hand tremors, and weight loss. The patient exhibited high free thyroxine (FT4) (6.42 ng/dL), low thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) (<0.01 μIU/mL), and high TSH receptor antibody (17.5 IU/L) levels, and was diagnosed with Graves’ disease. Thiamazole was administered, and the patient’s FT4 levels normalized after 30 days. One year later, the patient’s FT4 is stable; however, their TSH receptor antibodies have not become negative and thiamazole has continued. This is the first case report to follow the course of Graves’ disease one year after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.

Keywords