The COVID-19 disease usually leads to mild infectious disease in children, but some develop serious complications. Here, we describe the characteristics of children with COVID-19 in northern Iran, the Golestan province. Ninety-one confirmed cases were enrolled in the study, aged 0–18 years. Demographic, clinical, comorbidity, laboratory, and radiological data were compared based on the disease severity (admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) or not) and disease outcome (recovered or deceased). Sixteen (17.5%) cases were hospitalized in ICU, and 8/91 (8.8%) deceased. Fever and cough were the most common clinical symptoms. Among all symptoms notified there were no significant differences between severe and milder cases, or between those who deceased and recovered. Failure to thrive (FTT), malignant disease and neurological disease were significantly more prevalent in severe cases as was frequently reported comorbidities. Laterality, ground-glass opacity, and lung consolidation were the most common findings in chest computed tomography. The data confirms that the COVID-19 disease has various presentations in children, and clinical, laboratory, and radiological findings may help predict the development of severe forms of COVID-19 among children.

Introduction: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common bacterial infections in children that can be associated with renal parenchymal injuries and late scars. Dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) renal scan is known as golden standard for detecting acute pyelonephritis (APN) that has a lot of difficulties and limitations. Objectives: we designed this study the accuracy of one inflammatory marker, serum procalcitonin (PCT) to identify as an early predictor of renal injuries. Patients and Methods: A prospective study was carried out in 95 patients who admitted in the hospital with the first febrile UTI. Serum PCT of all patients was measured; sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value (PPV and NPV) of this marker was analyzed compared to DMSA scan. P value <0.05 was taken as significant. Results: In total, 79 females and 16 males were investigated. There are 42 cases in group 1 with normal DMSA scan and 53 patients in group two with renal parenchymal injuries in their scans. Mann-Whitney test showed a meaningful relation between the two groups regarding PCT level (P<0.0001). Sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of PCT reported in optimum cut off were 70%, 88.1%, 88.1% and 70%, respectively. The positive likelihood ratio (PLR) of PCT test was 5.8. Conclusion: In the current survey, PCT was the eligible inflammatory marker to predict renal parenchymal injuries in children with proper sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV that play also a pivotal role in the children aged less than 24 months, although, more studies should be undertaken to confirm.

People in different age groups are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection as a newly emerging virus. However, the clinical course, symptoms and disease outcome vary from case to case. Although COVID-19 is usually milder in children than adults, some studies reported nonspecific symptoms. Here, we report eight pediatric cases of COVID-19 admitted in the Taleghani Children Hospital in Gorgan city, north of Iran, with complicated symptoms. The current case series poses several challenges to the pediatricians regarding the pediatric cases of COVID-19. As most literature relating to adults are not always transferable to children, clinicians should be warned about such presentations among children with COVID-19.

Background: Computerized Tomographic (CT) scan is a rapid, non-invasive, and common diagnostic modality in radiology. More and faster growth of cells, as well as longer lifespan of a child, may lead to a cumulative effect of radiation and a greater chance of mutation, especially in children who are more vulnerable. Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the current trend in the use of this modality. Methods: In this descriptive study, all cases of children admitted to Taleghani Hospital who were studied by CT scan during the years 2018 - 2019, entered in survey. Demographic information, anatomical location of the scan, findings from the CT scan report, initial and final diagnosis, number of scans, patient’s complaint that led to his hospitalization and total amount of radiation received by the patient were analyzed. The data were analyzed by SPSS software version 23 with descriptive statistics (frequency, frequency percentage, and mean and standard deviation). Results: In this study, 344 scans of 280 patients were reviewed. Out of 280 patients, 222 patients underwent scan from one, 55 patients from two and four patients from three different anatomical locations. There were 146 male patients (52.1%) with a mean age of 57.7 months and 134 female patients (47.9%) with a mean age of 54.7 months. Out of all scans, the brain was reported with 45%, chest 30%, and other areas 25%. The CT scan was performed at the request of the doctor in charge. Pneumonia (19%) followed by convulsion (17%) and febrile seizures (12%) were the most common complaints. The number of completely normal CT was 151 scans (44.02%), with brain scans having the highest rate of normal scans with 74.19%. Brain scans with an average of 358.66 milliGray.centimeter (mGy.cm) and a maximum of 995.30 mG/cm had the highest average absorbed dose. Conclusions: In this study, the rate of normal CT scans was relatively high and the range of rays available for each modality was significantly wide. Effective interventions must be made in this regard.