Reversible cortical blindness and convulsions with cyclosporin A toxicity in a patient undergoing allogeneic peripheral stem cell transplantation

Abstract

A 40-year-old woman underwent allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for relapsed AML-M6. She developed graft-versus-host disease on day +15 post-transplant, for which she was treated with cyclosporin A and methyl prednisolone. On day +19 she developed cortical blindness, headache and convulsions which were associated with white matter changes on MRI scanning of the head and elevated cyclosporin A levels. A diagnosis of cyclosporin A encephalopathy was made and cyclosporin A was discontinued. Her vision recovered completely after 48 h and the other symptoms resolved. This is the first case of cyclosporin A encephalopathy to be reported in an allogeneic PBSC recipient.