Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological, demographic, clinical characteristics and laboratory findings of pediatric COVID-19 patients. Methods Patients with a positive COVID-19 nasopharyngeal polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test between 11 March 2020 and 31 December 2020 were evaluated. Results During the study period, 3118 patients underwent PCR tests, and 621 of them (19.9%) were positive. Of the patients with a positive test result, 335 were male (53.9%), the median age was 11 years. There were 308 (49.6%) patients that had a history of household exposure. The mean time between the onset of the patients complaints and the diagnosis was 1.88 ± 1.16 days. The most common symptoms were: fever (n = 424), cough (n = 419) and nasal symptoms (n = 157); loss of smell (3.5%) and taste (4.3%) were other symptoms observed in only patients aged 10 years or older. The most common abnormal laboratory finding was lymphopenia (n = 29, 36.7%). Of the 621 patients, the vast majority (n = 546, 87.9%) were classified as mild COVID-19 disease. There was a significant relationship between disease severity and age and comorbidity (p = 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively). Only 34 patients (5.5%) were admitted to hospital, and two patients were followed-up with a diagnosis of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. The mortality rate was 0.32%. Conclusion COVID-19 can cause different symptoms in children. Although the disease generally causes a mild clinic presentation, it should be kept in mind that it may be more severe especially in children with comorbidities.

Background Benign acute childhood myositis (BACM) is associated with several viral infections. The aim of this study was to evaluate the progression of myositis symptoms, laboratory findings and oseltamivir treatment in children with influenza‐ and non‐influenza‐associated BACM. Methods Patients aged 0–18 years old, admitted to the pediatric emergency department in the seasonal influenza period between 2018 and 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients with acute onset calf tenderness, pain, difficulty in walking and elevated serum creatine phosphokinase were included and were grouped according to influenza rapid test kit results as influenza (A and B) positive, and influenza negative. The time to symptom resolution, laboratory data and the oseltamivir treatment were compared between the groups. Results There were 94 patients (67 male, 27 female) with a mean age of 77 ± 22 months. Influenza A was detected in 21, influenza B in 27, and neither were detected in 46 patients. Time to symptom resolution of BACM was shorter in the influenza‐positive patients than in influenza‐negative patients (2.9 ± 1.4 days and 3.5 ± 1.5 days, respectively, P = 0.027). Oseltamivir did not reduce the symptom resolution time in influenza patients. All children had normal hemoglobin and platelet counts, elevated creatine phosphokinase and 76% of them had leukopenia. Neither clinical recurrence nor metabolic disease were reported. Conclusion Symptoms of BACM tended to resolve slightly earlier in influenza‐positive patients and the duration of symptoms was not affected by oseltamivir treatment.

Background : During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period, the use of emergency services with pediatric non-COVID patients has decreased considerably. We aimed to examine whether there was a change in the demographic data, triage profile, causes, management, and cost of pediatric emergency department (PED) visits of non-COVID patients during the pandemic period. Methods : This study was a retrospective, single-center, observational comparative study that was conducted at the PED. Patient records were examined during “the pandemic spring” and the same period of the previous year. Patient demographics, waiting time, and outcome of the PED visit were analyzed in the entire population of children admitted to the PED during the study period, whereas more precise data such as the reason for PED use, duration of symptoms, urgency levels according to the Emergency Severity Index (ESI), final diagnosis, management, and cost of patient care were analyzed in a sample of admitted patients. We used the chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and Mann–Whitney U test for statistical analyses. Results : A total of 62,593 PED visits occurred. During the pandemic period, PED visits showed a decrease of 55.8% compared to the previous year. Patients included in the sampling study group were selected using a systematic random sampling method. The median waiting time during the pandemic period was significantly shorter than the previous year (median 14 min [IQR: 5–32] vs. median 5 min [IQR: 2–16]; p<0.001). The median duration of symptoms was 1 day (1–2) in both groups. Emergency Severity Index (ESI) levels I, II, and III showed a significant increase (27.7% vs. 37.3%) in triage scoring compared to levels IV and V (72.3% vs. 62.7%) during the pandemic period (p<0.001). The median cost per patient during the pandemic period was statistically higher compared to the previous year ($19.57 [19.57–40.50] vs. $25.34 [31.50–52.01]; p<0.001). Overall costs during the pandemic period had a 1.6-fold decline. Conclusion : We highlighted the changes in an ordinary PED profile during an extraordinary period. A shift in ESI levels in a more emergent direction was observed. While the number of nonurgent patients, especially those with infections, decreased, the rates of surgical cases, acute neurological and heart diseases, home accidents, and poisoning increased relative to the pre-pandemic period.

No abstract