• Fen Lin, Man-Tong Chen, Lin Zhang, He Xie, Zhe Yang, Bin Huang, Jian-Peng Wu, Wei-Hao Lin, and Li-Ye Yang.
• Precision Medical Lab Center, Chaozhou Central Hospital Affiliated to Southern Medical University, Chaozhou, PR China.
• Ann. Med. 2024 Dec 1; 56 (1): 23893012389301.

ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate the clinical findings of hospitalized paediatric COVID-19 patients by the end of 2022.MethodAll confirmed children with COVID-19 infection admitted into Chaozhou Central Hospital during the COVID-19 outbreak from 19 December 2022 to 1 February 2023 were included. Detailed clinical data of those children were evaluated retrospectively.ResultsA total of 286 children, ranging in age from 1 month to 13 years old, were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among these cases, 138 (48.3%) were categorized as mild, 126 (44.0%) as moderate and 22 (7.7%) as severe/critical. Symptoms varied among the children and included fever, upper respiratory tract symptoms, convulsions, sore throat, poor appetite, dyspnoea and gastrointestinal symptoms. Notably, febrile convulsions were observed in 96 (33.6%) patients, while acute laryngitis was documented in 50 (17.5%) cases. Among the severe/critical patients, eight developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), and tragically, one patient's condition worsened and resulted in death. Furthermore, MRI scans revealed abnormal brain signals in six severe/critical patients. The severe/critical group also exhibited more pronounced laboratory abnormalities, including decreased haemoglobin and elevated ALT, AST, LDH and CK levels.ConclusionsFebrile convulsions and acute laryngitis are frequently observed in children diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection. Moreover, MIS-C and abnormal neuroimaging appear to be relatively common phenomena in severe/critical cases.

23 keywords...

hide…