Agranulocytosis following intravenous immunoglobulin administration in a patient with Guillain-Barré Syndrome triggered by COVID-19: A case report

Abstract

Neutropenia during recovery after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), as well as neutropenia after intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) administration are very rare hematological abnormalities. We report the first case of agranulocytosis following IVIG administration in patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) triggered by COVID-19. A 62-year-old female patient was admitted to the Emergency Department due to progressive limb weakness and sensory disturbances that began two weeks before admission. Five weeks before admission she was treated for COVID-19 and has fully recovered. She was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), and treatment with IVIG was started. Twenty hours after the first dose of IVIG, blood analysis showed neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, and after the fifth dose she developed agranulocytosis followed by mild increase in body temperature. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) was administered and after 12 hours the leukocyte lineage recovered. According to the previous findings, neutropenia after IVIG administration might be related to CD11b, and COVID-19 is associated with an increase in immature neutrophil populations in the later stages of the disease defined by their expression of CD11b. Meanwhile, some finding suggests that corticosteroid pretreatment prevent neutropenia after IVIG administration, which might be important because many patients with post-COVID GBS have been treated with corticosteroids for COVID-19.