• Walaa Shahin, Walaa Rabie, Osama Alyossof, Mohammed Alasiri, Mohamed Alfaki, Elamin Mahmoud, Muwaffak Hijazi, Huda El Faraidi, and Hassan Alahmari.
• From the Department of Pediatrics (Shahin), Faculty of Medicine, from the Department of Clinical and Chemical Pathology (Rabie), Kasr Alainy Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; and from the Department of Pediatrics (Shahin, Alyossof, Alasiri, Alfaki, Mahmoud, Hijazi, El Faraidi, Alahmari), Prince Sultan Military Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Saudi Med J. 2021 Mar 1; 42 (3): 299-305.

ObjectivesTo identify clinical and laboratory characteristics of the Saudi children with confirmed COVID-19.MethodsEighty-eight children (0-14 years) with COVID-19 who were admitted to Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from April to June 2020 were recruited.ResultsMean age was 5.74 ± 4.7 years with 41 (49.4%) males and 42 (50.6%) females. The length of hospital stay (LOS) ranged from 1 to 17 days. The main source of infection was infected family members. Mean values of C-reactive protein (CRP), serum ferritin, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were noticeably above normal. Degree of severity and length of stay was significantly correlated with lymphopenia (r= -0.36; p=0.001), whereas it was positively correlated with absolute neutrophil count and with high inflammatory markers, such as CRP, LDH, and others.ConclusionsIdentifying the clinical and laboratory characteristics of the Saudi children with confirmed COVID-19 will improve understanding of this disease's presentation and will help put rapid and proper management strategies into place to face this pandemic. A high index of suspicion is needed for cases presenting with multi-system inflammatory disease, which represented 5.7% of the included study population.Copyright: © Saudi Medical Journal.

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