AUTHOR=García-Howard Marcos , Herranz-Aguirre Mercedes , Moreno-Galarraga Laura , Urretavizcaya-Martínez María , Alegría-Echauri Josune , Gorría-Redondo Nerea , Planas-Serra Laura , Schlüter Agatha , Gut Marta , Pujol Aurora , Aguilera-Albesa Sergio 

TITLE=Case Report: Benign Infantile Seizures Temporally Associated With COVID-19

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pediatrics

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2020.00507

DOI=10.3389/fped.2020.00507

ISSN=2296-2360

ABSTRACT=Background: Nonfebrile illness seizures may present in previously healthy children as afebrile seizures associated with minor infections, such as mild gastroenteritis or respiratory tract infections, with a genetic predisposition. For the novel human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19, fever, cough and gastrointestinal complaints are the most common symptoms in children and a hyperimmune response may be present. No detailed temporally associated neurological complications have been documented in pediatric case series so far.
Case description: We present the case of a 3-month-old girl with nonfebrile repeated seizures in a COVID-19 family setting. The infant started with mild fever and cough that lasted two days. At day 6 from onset, the girl presented two focal motor seizures with impaired consciousness and awareness. All investigations ruled out signs of meningo-encephalitis or active epilepsy, including normal electroencephalogram and cerebral magnetic resonance imaging. PCR from nasal and throat swabs was positive for SARS-CoV-2. Remarkably, blood ferritin and D-dimer levels were increased. At day 9, the infant presented another afebrile motor seizure and levetiracetam was started, with favourable response in 3 months of follow up. Much interest has raised on host genetic determinants to disease severity and susceptibility to COVID-19. We thus performed whole exome sequencing, revealing a pathogenic frameshift mutation in PRRT2 gene, in both the mother and the infant. The mother had presented two late infantile febrile convulsions with normal outcome afterwards.
Discussion: The hyperimmune response described in adult cases with COVID-19 can be displayed by infants, even in absence of respiratory symptoms. Moreover, COVID-19 disease may present in infants as nonfebrile seizures, triggering early onset seizures in infants with a genetic predisposition. In this pandemic situation, precision medicine using massive sequencing can shed light to reveal underlying molecular mechanisms driving the host response to COVID-19.