Clinical and laboratory findings of children with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Mashhad, Iran: An observational study

ABSTRACT

Background: The novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a cause of respiratory/systemic disorder which is spread in the world since September 2019 and is now a serious pandemic. To date, there is limited data on children available in the literature especially in Middle East. Objective(s) In this article, we aimed to provide an overview of clinical and laboratory data in children with COVID-19 admitted in Mashhad, Iran. Method(s) This was a cross sectional study that was related to the Registry of COVID19 Pediatric patients in Mashhad (RCPM), from 20 February 2020 to 5 August 2020 in Akbar and Dr. Sheikh Hospitals, the tertiary referral centers of pediatric COVID19 patients in Northern East of Iran. Demographic information, clinical symptoms, laboratory results, management, and outcome data from each patient's medical records were recorded. Result(s) In this period, from 1245 patients referred to our center, 97 patients were positive for COVID19 with PCR or serologic test. Majority of them were male (58, 59.8%). The median age of patients was 5.5 years old. The mean time from beginning the symptoms to hospitalization was 6.72 +/- 9.02 days. The most age groups were 1-5 years old (28.9%) Twenty patients lead to pneumonia (20.6%), eight of them lead to Multi-Inflammatory Syndrome Of Children (MISC) (8.2%), Kawasaki disease was seen in 4 patients (4.1%), myocarditis in 4 patients (4.1%) and 14 patients were died (14.4%). Conclusion(s) The existence of asymptomatic cases indicates the difficulty in identifying pediatric patients without clear epidemiological information. This finding suggests a dangerous situation if community acquired infections occur. Copyright © 2022 Scientific Publishers of India. All rights reserved.