A single-center, retrospective study of COVID-19 features in children: a descriptive investigation

Abstract

Background: Compared to adults, there are relatively few studies on COVID-19 infection in children, and even less focusing on the unique features of COVID-19 in children in terms of laboratory findings, locations of computerized tomography (CT) lesions, and the role of CT in evaluating clinical recovery. The objective of this study is to report the results from patients at Wuhan Children's Hospital, located within the initial center of the outbreak.Methods: Clinical, imaging, and laboratory data of 76 children were collected retrospectively and analyzed with the Fisher exact test and Cox regression statistical methods.Results: Among 50 children with a positive COVID-19 real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR), five had negative PCR results initially but showed positive results in subsequent tests. Eight (16%) patients had lymphopenia, seven (14%) with thrombocytopenia, four (8%) with lymphocytosis, two (4%) with thrombocytosis, ten (20%) with elevated C-reactive protein, four (8%) with hemoglobin above, and six (12%) with below standard reference values. Seven (14%) of the 50 had no radiologic evidence of disease on chest CT. For the 43 patients who had abnormal CT findings, in addition to previously reported patterns of ground-glass opacity (67%), local patchy shadowing (37%), local bilateral patchy shadowing (21%), and lesion location of lower lobes (65%), other CT features include that an overwhelming number of pediatric patients had lesions in the subpleural area (95%) and 22 of the 28 lower lobe lesions were in the posterior segment (78%). Lesions in most of the 15 patients (67%) who received chest CT at discharge were not completely absorbed, and 26% of these pediatric patients had CT lesions that were either unchanged or worse.(Continued on next page)

Chest computed tomography (CT) features in children with reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR)‐confirmed COVID‐19: A systematic review

“…Eleven articles 13,19,[21][22][23][24][30][31][32][33][34] matched the selection criteria and were selected for the full-text assessment. One of the articles 30 was excluded after reading the full text (high-resolution CT study, including both adults and children, with lack of specific information for the comparative assessment).…”

“…Eight articles 19,[21][22][23][24]31,33,34 were included for the final analysis. A ninth article 13 was hand-selected from the references section of the review article by Duan et al 20 This article was attentively read, and references compared, with the aim to minimize overlapping.…”

“…Six of the studies [21][22][23]31,33 reported the topographic predominance of abnormalities, four concluded this was lower lobes, one upper lobes, and one the same (see Table 1).…”

“…The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Quality Assessment Tool was applied to assess the quality of the selected articles ( Table 2). The PRISMA assessment of 23 Xia et al 24 Chen et al 19 Li et al 21 Lu et al 33 Li et al 22 Sun et al 13 Ma et al 31 Steinberger et al 34 Patient enrolment the quality of the present systematic review is presented in Figure 1.…”

COVID Abdomen: SARS-CoV-2 Infection presenting as 'Acute Abdomen' in a Child

“…Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) started in China and became a pandemic in a short time threatening human lives. Although reports from most countries con rm lower incidence in children [1], growing evidence suggests heterogeneity in clinical presentation dominating extra-pulmonary manifestations [2] and in ammatory syndromes [3]. Understanding these myriad presentations is not essential to make an early diagnosis and optimizing the treatment.…”