Comparison of the clinical characteristics between 37 adults and 10 children with COVID-19. (Special Issue: Spatio-temporal dynamics analysis, risk assessment and emergency management for COVID-19 epidemic.) [Chinese]

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the differences in clinical characteristics between children and adults with COVID-19. Methods The epidemiological characteristics, clinical symptoms, laboratory results, imaging results and treatment regimens of 37 adult and 10 children cases of COVID-19 were analyzed. Results Family clusters were more common in the adult group, while all children cases were caused by intra-family transmission. The adult group had a significantly higher incidence of symptoms such as fever, cough, pharyngeal pain(pharyngeal itch)and fatigue(muscle soreness)than the children group(P < 0.05), while there is no difference in symptoms like chest tightness and chest pain. The children group had a higher rate of non-changing pulmonary imaging than the adult group(P < 0.05). The children group had higher increase of myocardial enzyme than the adult group(P < 0.05), while there were no differences in the increases of liver enzyme, myoglobin and troponin. The children group had lower increase of CRP, IL-6 and SAA than the adult group(P < 0.05), while there were no significant differences in the increase of PCT and decreases of leukocyte and lymphocyte counts. The treatment regimen for the children group was simpler than that for the adults. Conclusion Intra-family transmission is the main way for children to catch COVID-19. Compared with adults, children have milder clinical symptoms, milder CT lesions, no obvious liver and myocardial damage, and no significant changes in inflammatory indicators.