Characteristics of Kids Who Become Severely Ill with COVID-19 Offer Clues on Similarities—and Dissimilarities—to Other Inflammatory Syndromes

It’s taken a while for data to catch up with the potential harm that could await children who contract COVID-19, but it’s becoming clearer that children who become severely ill with the virus may have certain things in common with kids who have better-understood conditions. Urgent care providers should be wary of assuming that similarities in presenting characteristics equate to similar trajectories ahead, however. A new study just published by the Journal of the American Medical Association identified traits that set pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 apart from those with other inflammatory syndromes. They found a wide spectrum of presenting signs and symptoms (ranging from fever and inflammation to myocardial injury, shock, and development of coronary aneurysms) as well as disease severity. Interestingly, 13 of 58 cases studied involved children who met American Heart Association definitions of Kawasaki disease, and 23 had fever and inflammation without features of shock or KD. Eight (14%) developed coronary artery dilatation or aneurysm. “The comparison with patients with KD and KD shock syndrome provides insights into this syndrome, and suggests this disorder differs from other pediatric inflammatory entities,” the authors concluded.