Now Reading
New Study: Children Vulnerable To Post-Coronavirus Emerging Disease

New Study: Children Vulnerable To Post-Coronavirus Emerging Disease

A new study has stated that children who had prior exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome of the new coronavirus are gradually developing strange health challenge.

A press statement by the Radiological Society of North America, RSN indicated that the new case series, published in the journal Radiology, examines the spectrum of imaging findings in children with the post-COVID-19 inflammatory condition, known as the multi-system inflammatory syndrome.

The RSN further noted that its findings include airway inflammation and rapid development of pulmonary oedema, coronary artery aneurysms, and extensive intra-abdominal inflammatory changes.

According to the study authors, a retrospective review of clinical, laboratory, and imaging findings was conducted on the first 35 children under 17 years of age who were admitted at the paediatric hospital. The study stated:

“The children were admitted from April 14 to May 9, 2020. They included 27 boys and 8 girls with a median age of 11 years, who met the case definition of MIS-C.

“The most common clinical presentations found in the children were fever (94%), gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhoea (86%), rash (37%), and conjunctivitis (26%).”

SEE ALSO: UNICEF Identifies Fresh Challenges Facing Mothers & Children In Nigeria During COVID-19 Crisis

The authors further noted that although 60 per cent of the children were in shock, the clinical status was severe enough to warrant management in the paediatric intensive care unit in 69 per cent of children, with 20 per cent requiring mechanical ventilation and another 57 per cent requiring inotropic [increasing the strength of muscular contraction] support.

The laboratory tests revealed that all of the children had abnormal white blood cell counts with two other children requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation due to severe myocardial dysfunction.

A report by the Medical Encyclopaedia stated that extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is a treatment that uses a pump to circulate blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream of a very ill baby. It provides heart-lung bypass support outside of the baby’s body.

Pharmacy Times reports that the study identified a pattern of imaging findings in post-COVID-19 multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, including airway inflammation, rapidly progressive pulmonary edema, coronary artery aneurysms, and extensive abdominal inflammatory changes within the right iliac fossa (part of the three fused bones making the hip bone). It stated:

”All 35 children underwent chest X-ray due to fever, sepsis, or features of multisystem inflammation. The most common finding in the 19 abnormal X-rays analyzed were bronchial wall thickening.”

See Also

READ ALSO: WORRISOME! Medical Experts Raise Concerns About Coronavirus Posing A Greater Threat To Children | See Details

The main findings on the chest were basal consolidation or part of the lung filling with fluid and collapsed lung with pleural effusions. Abdominal ultrasound findings included inflammatory changes within the right iliac fossa, with mesenteric fat stranding, lymphadenopathy, and bowel wall thickening, as well as free fluid in the pelvis.

The lead study author, Shema Hameed said, “As paediatric radiologists, we were interested in the emerging pattern of imaging findings that we observed in these children. He noted:

“Our intention is to bring these findings to the attention of the wider radiological community.”

Source: PUNCH

Copyright © 2021 Motherhood In-Style Magazine. All Rights Reserved.