BACKGROUND Even though coronavirus 2019 disease(COVID-19)clinical course in children is much milder than in adults,pneumonia can occur in the pediatric population as well.Here,we reported a single-center pediatric cas...BACKGROUND Even though coronavirus 2019 disease(COVID-19)clinical course in children is much milder than in adults,pneumonia can occur in the pediatric population as well.Here,we reported a single-center pediatric case series of COVID-19 from Kazakhstan during the first wave of pandemic.AIM To analyze the main clinical and laboratory aspects in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2(SARS-CoV-2)positive and negative children diagnosed with pneumonia.METHODS This is a retrospective analysis of 54 children,who were medically assessed as close contacts of COVID-19 adults in their family setting,between June and September 2020.These children were all hospitalized:We compared the clinical and laboratory characteristics of children affected with pneumonia in the presence(group 1)or absence(group 2)of SARS-CoV-2 infection.RESULTS Overall,the main clinical manifestations at the admission were fever,cough,loss of appetite,fatigue/weakness,nasal congestion and/or rhinorrhea,and dyspnea.Based on the SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction(PCR)test,24 positive children with pneumonia(group 1)and 20 negative children with pneumonia(group 2)were identified;10 positive children did not show any radiological findings of pneumonia.No significant differences were found between the two pneumonia study groups for any clinical and laboratory parameters,except for C-reactive protein(CRP).Of course,both pneumonia groups showed increased CRP values;however,the COVID-19 pneumonia group 1 showed a significantly higher increase of CRP compared to group 2.CONCLUSION In our case series of children assessed for SARS-CoV-2 infection based on contact tracing,the acute inflammatory response and,in detail,CRP increase resulted to be more pronounced in COVID-19 children with pneumonia than in children with SARS-CoV-2-unrelated pneumonia.However,because of multiple limitations of this study,larger,controlled and more complete clinical studies are needed to verify this finding.展开更多
文摘BACKGROUND Even though coronavirus 2019 disease(COVID-19)clinical course in children is much milder than in adults,pneumonia can occur in the pediatric population as well.Here,we reported a single-center pediatric case series of COVID-19 from Kazakhstan during the first wave of pandemic.AIM To analyze the main clinical and laboratory aspects in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2(SARS-CoV-2)positive and negative children diagnosed with pneumonia.METHODS This is a retrospective analysis of 54 children,who were medically assessed as close contacts of COVID-19 adults in their family setting,between June and September 2020.These children were all hospitalized:We compared the clinical and laboratory characteristics of children affected with pneumonia in the presence(group 1)or absence(group 2)of SARS-CoV-2 infection.RESULTS Overall,the main clinical manifestations at the admission were fever,cough,loss of appetite,fatigue/weakness,nasal congestion and/or rhinorrhea,and dyspnea.Based on the SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction(PCR)test,24 positive children with pneumonia(group 1)and 20 negative children with pneumonia(group 2)were identified;10 positive children did not show any radiological findings of pneumonia.No significant differences were found between the two pneumonia study groups for any clinical and laboratory parameters,except for C-reactive protein(CRP).Of course,both pneumonia groups showed increased CRP values;however,the COVID-19 pneumonia group 1 showed a significantly higher increase of CRP compared to group 2.CONCLUSION In our case series of children assessed for SARS-CoV-2 infection based on contact tracing,the acute inflammatory response and,in detail,CRP increase resulted to be more pronounced in COVID-19 children with pneumonia than in children with SARS-CoV-2-unrelated pneumonia.However,because of multiple limitations of this study,larger,controlled and more complete clinical studies are needed to verify this finding.
