CLINICAL AND LABORATORY CHARACTERISTICS OF A NEW CORONAVIRUS INFECTION (COVID-19) IN CHILDREN COGNITIVE ACTIVITY

Abstract

Clinical and laboratory observation was carried out for 91 children aged from 1 month to 14 years who were treated in an infectious hospital with a diagnosis of a new coronavirus infection. The diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 was confirmed by PCR in all cases. Examination of patients included general clinical and biochemical tests, markers of systemic inflammatory response, coagulation parameters, chest X-ray, chest CT scan (if it was necessary). It was found that at present time, coronavirus infection in children has all clinical signs of acute respiratory viral infections, and most children suffer from COVID-19 in moderate forms (79,1 %). Among hospitalized patients, children aged 1 to 3 years were the largest group (34,1 %), the number of children under one year old was 29,7 %. Among the clinical symptoms, the most common were moderate temperature (100 % of children), signs of inflammation of the upper respiratory tract: hyperemia of the oropharynx (87,9 %), rhinorrhea and nasal congestion (61,5 %), cough (65,9 %). Diarrhea was recorded in 14,3 % of patients, vomiting in 15,3 % of children. Pneumonia was the most common complication of coronavirus disease among hospitalized children. It was registered in 25,3 % of clinical cases. Among children under one year old, pneumonia was registered less frequently than in older children - 14,8 % and 29,7 % of observations in the groups. Clinical and radiological signs of acute bronchitis were detected in 22 children (24,2 %), symptoms of acute bronchial obstruction were diagnosed in 18,2 % of cases, and signs of laryngitis were recorded in 14,3 %. We did not find significant changes in laboratory parameters. The average duration of hospital treatment for children was 6,80 ± 4,18 days.