“The extended resolution time supports a follow-up interval of at least 12 weeks for suspected vaccine-related lymphadenopathy and avoidance of post-vaccination post-vaccination mammograms,” wrote Michele B. Drotman, the study’s corresponding author of the paper.
Dotman and a team from Weill Cornell Medicine extracted health record data from 111 patients (average age 52) who developed unilateral axillary lymphadenopathy on the same side after Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccination. Follow-up ultrasound within 4-12 weeks – breast ultrasound within the previous 8 weeks (January 1-October 1, 2021).
In this single-center study, ipsilateral axillary lymphadenopathy following COVID-19 mRNA vaccination resolved on average 97 days after breast imaging and 127 days after first dose. Moderna (but not Pfizer) vaccinations had longer resolution times, received a second dose after onset, and had thicker cortical thickness at onset.
“The presence of subclinical lymphadenopathy and the longer resolution of lymphadenopathy should reassure radiologists and patients when lymph nodes suspected of being vaccine-related persist across multiple visits,” the authors noted.
