Review Cites Post-COVID-19 Syndrome as Cause of Heart Damage in Children

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All 662 patients with MIS-C had a fever, while 73.7 percent experienced diarrhea or abdominal pain. 68.3 percent of the cases, on the other hand, suffered vomiting.

A medical literature review senior author said multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children or MIS-C, presumed to be associated with COVID-19, impairs the heart to such a range that some children will require a lifetime of monitoring and interventions.

The said review was published yesterday in The Lancet Journal called the EClinicalMedicine.

According to The University Texas Health Science Center's Alvaro Moreira, MD, MSc, case studies present too, that MISC-C can attack healthy children without any warning between three to four weeks following asymptomatic infections.

Dr. Moreira, a neonatologist added, the literature indicates, children did not have to show the typical "upper respiratory symptoms of COVID-19" to develop the said condition, which he said, was frightening.

Specifically, the doctor said, children may not exhibit specific symptoms, and nobody would know they had the illness; then, a couple of weeks after, they are likely to develop what is described as an exaggerated infection in the body.

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MIS-C Cases Reported Globally

The team of researchers studied around 662 MIS-C cases reported globally from January 1 to July 25 this year.

Part of the study findings was that 71 percent of the children needed admission to the intensive care unit or ICU. Their average length of stay at the hospital was around seven days.

All 662 patients had a fever, while 73.7 percent experienced diarrhea or abdominal pain. 68.3 percent of the cases, on the other hand, suffered vomiting.

Twenty-two percent of the hospitalized children needed ventilation, while 4.4 percent required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Of all the children studied, 11 died.

Dr. Moreira explained, MIS-C is a new childhood illness believed to be linked to COVID-19. It can be fatal as it affects multiple organ systems.

The doctor also said that the degree of infection in MISC-C exceeds two akin childhood conditions. These, he specified, are the Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome.

The good news is that treating these children using methods that are used to treat Kawasaki has been effective.

Cardiac Irregularities

 The study showed the majority of the "662 children suffered cardiac involvement" as specified by markers, including troponin, which is employed with great accuracy in adult individuals for the diagnosis of heart attacks.

Also, according to the neonatologist, 581 or 90 percent of the children went through an echocardiogram due to the substantial cardiac manifestation of the illness.

One of the damages detected in this condition is the dilation of coronary blood vessels. Also, a significant occurrence was seen in Kawasaki disease.

Another impairment is the ejection fraction specifying the heart's reduced ability "to pump oxygenated blood to the body's tissues."

Furthermore, nearly 10 percent of the children suffered aneurysm of a coronary vessel, a localized stretching ballooning of the blood vessel that can be gauged through the use of an ultrasound of the heart.

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Obese Individuals to Suffer a Worse Result

Another study result presented is that almost 50 percent of the patients with MIS-C had an underlying condition. More so, of these patients, half of them were either overweight or obese.

Another finding from the case studies: Almost half of the patients who had MIS-C had an underlying medical condition, and of those, half of the individuals were obese or overweight.

Dr. Moreira said, in both kids and adults, they are seeing that obese people are likely to suffer a worse result.

When the study authors made a comparison to the initial infection of COVID-19, the inflammatory markers in MIS-C were found to be far from abnormal.

Troponin, the marker used to diagnose heart attacks in adults, was found to be 50 times its standard level in children who have MIS-C.

Based on their findings, Dr. Moreira explained, their evidence suggests that MIS-C patients have an extensive infection and probable tissue impairment to their hearts.

Because of this, he elaborated, the research team will need to monitor the children with MIS-C more closely to understand further what implications there may be in the long run.

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