Peripheral nerve disease in SARS:

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an infection caused by a novel coronavirus,1 is a life-threatening respiratory disease, which has broken out worldwide. Although the clinical features in the epidemic areas have been reported in detail,2 no neurologic manifestations have been mentioned. We report a SARS patient who developed acute paresthesia and weakness in her lower limbs during the period of mechanical ventilator support. The husband of a previously well 51-year-old woman returned to Taiwan in February 2003 from a 16-day stay in Guangdong, China, and began to experience fever (>38 °C), cough, and myalgia on February 25. Progressive respiratory distress was noted, and chest x-ray (CXR) showed bilateral pneumonia. He was intubated on March 10. Based on the traveling history, clinical manifestations, and CXR findings, he was diagnosed with probable SARS.3 His wife then developed high fever (39.1 °C), sore throat, watery diarrhea, and cough with dyspnea. Her CXR taken on March 14 showed increased infiltration in the right lower lobe. Laboratory studies showed raised glutamic-pyruvic transaminase and lactate dehydrogenase …