Clinical and immunological parallels in children patients with COVID-19

Abstract

The problem of the incidence of new coronavirus infection in childhood is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, questions arise regarding the peculiarities of the pathogenesis of COVID-19 in children.

The aim of the research was to study the clinical and immunological features of COVID-19 in children hospitalized with a severe course of the disease.

Material and methods. We examined 53 children from 0 to 15 years old, hospitalized with suspected new coronavirus infection at Children’s Clinical Hospital No. 3 in Novosibirsk from October to December 2020. Determination of specific IgM and IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 antigens in serum blood was carried out using the ELISA method. SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA in nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs was determined using commercial kits for PCR diagnostics. A z-test was used to compare relative numbers. The significance level was taken equal to 5% (p=0.05).

Results and discussion. All examined children hospitalized with suspected COVID-19, regardless of the duration of the disease, had specific IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 antigens, which confirms earlier contact with the new coronavirus in relation to the time of the examination. In 63.6% of cases, specific IgM antibodies of the class to SARS-CoV-2 were detected in the blood serum, in 6% of cases the result was doubtful. IgM antibodies were not detected in blood serum in 30.3% of patients. The results obtained for the determination of IgG and IgM antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 antigens may reflect the atypical nature of seroconversion in COVID-19. An extremely diverse clinical symptomatology was revealed, including, in addition to catarrhal syndrome and intoxication syndrome, abdominal, meningeal, and articular syndromes. In 24.3% of children, polymorphic exanthema was detected, which may be a manifestation of the systemic nature of damage to the vascular wall.

Conclusion. With serologically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 etiology of the infectious process in the examined children, an extremely diverse clinical symptomatology was revealed, which, most likely, may be associated with multiple organ damage.

Keywords:SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; antibodies; children; immunity

Funding. The study was not sponsored.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare that there is not conflict of interest.

Contribution. Concept and design of the study – Obukhova O.O., Ryabichenko T.I., Trunov A.N., Voevoda M.I.; collection and processing of the material – Karpovuthc G.S., Kuimova I.V., Skosyreva G.A., Gorbenko O.M.; statistical processing – Obukhova O.O., Ryabichenko T.I., Trunov A.N.; writing of the text – Obukhova O.O., Ryabichenko T.I., Skosyreva G.A.; editing – Voevoda M.I.

For citation: Obukhova O.O., Karpovich G.S., Ryabichenko T.I., Skosyreva G.A., Gorbenko O.M., Trunov A.N., Kuimova I.V., Voevoda M.I. Clinical and immunological parallels in children patients with COVID-19. Infektsionnye bolezni: novosti, mneniya, obuchenie [Infectious Diseases: News, Opinions, Training]. 2022; 11 (1): 25–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33029/2305-3496-2022-11-2-25-31

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CHIEF EDITOR
Aleksandr V. Gorelov
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, MD, Head of Infection Diseases and Epidemiology Department of the Scientific and Educational Institute of Clinical Medicine named after N.A. Semashko ofRussian University of Medicine, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Professor of the Department of Childhood Diseases, Clinical Institute of Children's Health named after N.F. Filatov, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Deputy Director for Research, Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, Rospotrebnadzor (Moscow, Russian Federation)

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