Transverse myelitis is a rare clinical syndrome in which an immune-mediated process causes neural injury to the spinal cord. The pathogenesis of transverse myelitis is mostly of an autoimmune nature, triggered by various environmental factors, including vaccination. Our aim here was to search for and analyze reported cases of transverse myelitis following vaccination. A systematic review of PubMed, EMBASE and DynaMed for all English-language journals published between 1970 and 2009 was preformed, utilizing the key words transverse myelitis, myelitis, vaccines, post-vaccination, vaccination and autoimmunity. We have disclosed 37 reported cases of transverse myelitis associated with different vaccines including those against hepatitis B virus, measles-mumps-rubella, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and others, given to infants, children and adults. In most of these reported cases the temporal association was between several days and 3 months, although a longer time frame of up to several years was also suggested. Although vaccines harbor a major contribution to public health in the modern era, in rare cases they may be associated with autoimmune phenomena such as transverse myelitis. The associations of different vaccines with a single autoimmune phenomenon allude to the idea that a common denominator of these vaccines, such as an adjuvant, might trigger this syndrome.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
1
<1%
Other
4
3%
Unknown
42
34%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 415. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 21 October 2026.
All research outputs
#90,304
of 34,626,533 outputs
Outputs from Lupus
#2
of 2,521 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#143
of 153,407 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Lupus
#1
of 38 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,626,533 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,521 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 153,407 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 38 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
