Report of a Child With Febrile Status Epilepticus and Post-COVID Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome

Appleberry, Holly C.; Begezda, Alexis; Cheung, Helen; Zaghab-Mathews, Soriayah; Mainali, Gayatra

Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) is a post infectious inflammatory syndrome following COVID infection. Previous case series have demonstrated that CNS involvement is less common and presents heterogeneously. The following case describes an infant with an initial presentation of refractory febrile status epilepticus. Genetic testing later showed multiple variants of uncertain significance. The patient met clinical criteria for MIS-C and had a markedly abnormal brain MRI with bilateral diffuse restricted diffusion (anterior > posterior). Clinically, the patient improved with pulse steroids and IVIg. This case highlights the importance of maintaining MIS-C in the differential as a trigger of Febrile Infection Related Epilepsy Syndrome (FIRES) with multi-organ involvement presenting 2-4 weeks after infectious symptoms and COVID exposure.