Frontiers in pediatrics
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At the end of 2019, in Wuhan (China), the onset of a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was observed. The disease, named COVID-19, has a wide spectrum of clinical presentations, ranging from asymptomatic or mild to critical, and for some patients the disease is even fatal. Apparently, being a child or being pregnant does not represent an additional risk for adverse outcomes. ⋯ Only three papers reported neonatal SARS-CoV-2 infection, but there is a bias that positive pharyngeal swab samples were collected at 36 h and on the 2nd, 4th, and 17th days of life. The possibility of intrauterine infection has been based mainly on the detection of IgM and IL-6 in the neonates' serum. In conclusion, to date, no convincing evidence has been found for vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
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Frontiers in pediatrics · Jan 2020
Changes of Structural Brain Network Following Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Children With Bilateral Spastic Cerebral Palsy: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study.
Introduction: Bilateral spastic cerebral palsy (BSCP) is the most common subtype of cerebral palsy (CP), which is characterized by various motor and cognitive impairments, as well as emotional instability. However, the neural basis of these problems and how repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can make potential impacts on the disrupted structural brain network in BSCP remain unclear. This study was aimed to explore the topological characteristics of the structural brain network in BSCP following the treatment of rTMS. ⋯ Conclusion: Significant differences of node-level metrics were found in various brain regions of BSCP, which indicated a disruption in structural brain connectivity in BSCP. The alterations of the structural brain network provided a basis for understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of motor and cognitive impairments in BSCP. Moreover, the right inferior frontal gyrus, putamen, thalamus could potentially be biomarkers for predicting the efficacy of TMS.
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Frontiers in pediatrics · Jan 2020
ReviewPotential Effect of COVID-19 on Maternal and Infant Outcome: Lesson From SARS.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, is highly infectious and its ongoing outbreak has been declared a global pandemic by the WHO. Pregnant women are susceptible to respiratory pathogens and the development of severe pneumonia, suggesting the urgent need to assess the potential maternal and infant outcome of pregnancy with COVID-19. The intrauterine vertical transmission potential of SARS-CoV-2 also remains controversial. ⋯ Although there is no evidence supporting the intrauterine vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2, our comprehensive analysis suggests that the adverse maternal and infant outcomes caused by COVID-19 cannot be underestimated. Further, we speculated that the inconsistency between nucleic acids and serological characteristics IgM to SARS-CoV-2 of infants' specimens may be caused by the disruption of the amniotic barrier by the inflammatory factors induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our review is beneficial to understand the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on maternal and infant outcomes.
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Frontiers in pediatrics · Jan 2020
ReviewPediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome and Rheumatic Diseases During SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.
Globally, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), appeared to have a milder clinical course in children compared to adults. As severe forms of COVID-19 in adults included an aberrant systemic immune response, children with chronic systemic inflammatory diseases were cautiously followed. No evidence for a specific susceptibility was identified in this pediatric population. ⋯ Clinical presentations include fever, cardiac involvement, gastro-intestinal symptoms, mucocutaneous manifestations, hematological features, or other organ dysfunctions. The temporal association between the pandemic peaks and outbreaks of PIMS seems to be in favor of a post-infectious, immune-mediated mechanism. Thus, SARS-CoV2 can rarely be associated with severe systemic inflammatory manifestations in previously healthy children differently from adults highlighting the specific need for COVID-19 research in the pediatric population.
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Frontiers in pediatrics · Jan 2020
ReviewSalient Conclusive Remarks on Epidemiology and Clinical Manifestations of Pediatric COVID-19: Narrative Review.
The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, which is caused by the novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), constituted significant public health concerns and impacted the human populations with massive economic and social burdens worldwide. The disease is known to infect people of all ages, including children, adults, and the elderly. Although several reports about pediatric COVID-19 were seen in the literature, we believe that the epidemiology and pathology of the infection described in these reports are not conclusive. ⋯ As documented in many studies, the infectivity, morbidity, and mortality rates of the disease among the children populations are much lower than those in adults. They also seem to be lower than those observed during SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV epidemics. The described clinical phenotypes of COVID-19 in children do not differ much from those of adults, and complications of the disease seem to be associated with comorbidities.