Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children Profiled

WEDNESDAY, July 8, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which coincided with COVID-19, is described in children and adolescents in the United States and New York state in two reports published online June 29 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Leora R. Feldstein, Ph.D., from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and colleagues conducted targeted surveillance for MIS-C from March 15 to May 20, 2020, in U.S. pediatric health centers. Data were included for 186 patients with MIS-C in 26 states (62 percent male). The researchers found that organ-system involvement included the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, hematologic, mucocutaneous, and respiratory systems in 92, 80, 76, 74, and 70 percent, respectively. Patients were hospitalized for a median of seven days; 80 percent received intensive care, and 20, 48, and 2 percent received mechanical ventilation, received vasoactive support, and died, respectively.

Elizabeth M. Dufort, M.D., from the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) in Albany, and colleagues summarized the clinical presentation, complications, and outcomes of patients who met the NYSDOH case definition for MIS-C between March 1 and May 10, 2020. The researchers identified 95 patients with confirmed MIS-C and four with suspected MIS-C; 53 were male. Thirty-one, 42, and 26 patients were aged 0 to 5, 6 to 12, and 13 to 20 years, respectively. All presented with subjective fever or chills, and 97, 80, 60, 56, and 27 percent had tachycardia, gastrointestinal symptoms, rash, conjunctival injection, and mucosal changes, respectively.

"The challenges of this new condition will now be to understand its pathophysiological mechanisms, to develop diagnostics, and to define the best treatment," write the authors of an accompanying editorial.

Abstract/Full Text - Feldstein
Abstract/Full Text - Dufort
Editorial