Lymph Nodes...

 

While the mass COVID-19 vaccination effort over the past four months is bringing closer the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, it is not without a cost.   

 But the cost here will be in terms of added patient anxiety and financial due to potential of additional, needed tests.   

There have been several alarms in peer-review literature and radiology societies that the COVID-19 vaccines cause temporary inflammation and swelling of lymph nodes in some patients. 

While the experts say this is normal, it can be a major cause for concern if physicians, radiologists and patients are not aware of this vaccine presentation and assume it is a sign of infection or cancer, leading to additional diagnostic testing or followup exams. 

The most common inflammatory type is lymphadenitis, producing swollen or enlarged lymph nodes. However, it is causing alarm on mammograms of recently vaccinated women and can lead to additional tests and imaging if found in patients who undergo CT scans for any reason. 

The development of lymphadenopathy after being vaccinated for COVID-19 is a sign of the body's immune system gearing up in response to the vaccine and will go away, the experts say, It has been seen with other vaccines, but the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines appear to affect a much larger number of people. 

In the clinical trials for the the Moderna vaccine, axillary swelling or tenderness was reported in 11.6% of patients (5% with placebo) after dose 1, and 16% (4.3% with placebo) after Dose 2. 

This greatly concerns radiologist who look at mammograms and review exams looking for cancer, or monitoring cancer treatment in patients.