Dataset Information

COVID-19 and what pediatric rheumatologists should know: a review from a highly affected country.

ABSTRACT: On March 11th, 2020 the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The infection, transmitted by 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCov), was first discovered in December 2019, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and then rapidly spread worldwide. Italy was early and severely involved, with a critical spread of the infection and a very high number of victims. Person-to-person spread mainly occurs via respiratory droplets and contact. The median incubation period is 5 days. The spectrum of respiratory symptoms may range from mild to severe, strictly depending on the age of the patient and the underlying comorbidities.In children COVID-19 related disease is less frequent and less aggressive. In Italy 1% of positive cases are under 18 years of age, and no deaths have been recorded before 29 years of age. For patients affected by rheumatic disease, despite the concerns related to the imbalance of their immune response and the effect of immunosuppressive treatments, there are still few data to understand the real consequences of this infection. Major scientific societies have issued recommendations to help rheumatologists in caring their patients. Interestingly, some of the drugs mostly used by rheumatologists appear to be promising in critical COVID-19 infected patients, where the hyperinflammation and cytokine storm seem to drive to the multiorgan failure.Pediatric rheumatologists are expected to play a supporting role in this new front of COVID-19 pandemic, both as general pediatricians treating infected children, and as rheumatologists taking care of their rheumatic patients, as well as offering their experience in the possible alternative use of immunomodulatory drugs.

SUBMITTER: Licciardi F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7175817 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:The ongoing pandemic coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a matter of global concern. Environmental factors such as air pollution and smoking and comorbid conditions (hypertension, diabetes mellitus and underlying cardio-respiratory illness) likely increase the severity of COVID-19. Rheumatic manifestations such as arthralgias and arthritis may be prevalent in about a seventh of individuals. COVID-19 can result in acute interstitial pneumonia, myocarditis, leucopenia (with lymphopenia) and thrombocytopenia, also seen in rheumatic diseases like lupus and Sjogren's syndrome. Severe disease in a subset of patients may be driven by cytokine storm, possibly due to secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), akin to that in systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis or adult-onset Still's disease. In the absence of high-quality evidence in this emerging disease, understanding of pathogenesis may help postulate potential therapies. Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) appears important for viral entry into pneumocytes; dysbalance in ACE2 as caused by ACE inhibitors or ibuprofen may predispose to severe disease. Preliminary evidence suggests potential benefit with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. Antiviral drugs like lopinavir/ritonavir, favipiravir and remdesivir are also being explored. Cytokine storm and secondary HLH might require heightened immunosuppressive regimens. Current international society recommendations suggest that patients with rheumatic diseases on immunosuppressive therapy should not stop glucocorticoids during COVID-19 infection, although minimum possible doses may be used. Disease-modifying drugs should be continued; cessation may be considered during infection episodes as per standard practices. Development of a vaccine may be the only effective long-term protection against this disease.Key Points• Patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) may have features mimicking rheumatic diseases, such as arthralgias, acute interstitial pneumonia, myocarditis, leucopenia, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia and cytokine storm with features akin to secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.• Although preliminary results may be encouraging, high-quality clinical trials are needed to better understand the role of drugs commonly used in rheumatology like hydroxychloroquine and tocilizumab in COVID-19.• Until further evidence emerges, it may be cautiously recommended to continue glucocorticoids and other disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in patients receiving these therapies, with discontinuation of DMARDs during infections as per standard practice.

Project description:BackgroundStudies summarizing the clinical picture of COVID-19 in children are lacking. This review characterizes clinical symptoms, laboratory, and imaging findings, as well as therapies provided to confirmed pediatric cases of COVID-19.MethodsAdhering to PRISMA guidelines, we searched four medical databases (PubMed, LitCovid, Scopus, WHO COVID-19 database) between December 1, 2019 to May 14, 2020 using the keywords "novel coronavirus", "COVID-19" or "SARS-CoV-2". We included published or in press peer-reviewed cross-sectional, case series, and case reports providing clinical signs, imaging findings, and/or laboratory results of pediatric patients who were positive for COVID-19. Risk of bias was appraised through the quality assessment tool published by the National Institutes of Health. PROSPERO registration # CRD42020182261.FindingsWe identified 131 studies across 26 countries comprising 7780 pediatric patients. Although fever (59·1%) and cough (55·9%) were the most frequent symptoms 19·3% of children were asymptomatic. Patchy lesions (21·0%) and ground-glass opacities (32·9%) depicted lung radiograph and computed tomography findings, respectively. Immunocompromised children or those with respiratory/cardiac disease comprised the largest subset of COVID-19 children with underlying medical conditions (152 of 233 individuals). Coinfections were observed in 5.6% of children and abnormal laboratory markers included serum D-dimer, procalcitonin, creatine kinase, and interleukin-6. Seven deaths were reported (0·09%) and 11 children (0·14%) met inclusion for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.InterpretationThis review provides evidence that children diagnosed with COVID-19 have an overall excellent prognosis. Future longitudinal studies are needed to confirm our findings and better understand which patients are at increased risk for developing severe inflammation and multiorgan failure.FundingParker B. Francis and pilot grant from 2R25-HL126140. Funding agencies had no involvement in the study.

Dataset Information

COVID-19 and what pediatric rheumatologists should know: a review from a highly affected country.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets