Pathological Lung Ultrasound May Take Time to Resolve Despite Respiratory Symptoms Improvement: A Pediatric Case Series Followed for Long COVID

Abstract

Background: Long COVID affects 8 to 10 % of children. Currently, the COVID-19 fo-llow-up protocols in children include chest auscultation, collection of growth parameters, including weight, height and body mass index, execution of the six-minute walking test, basal spirometry, and afterwards, bronchodilation test and lung ultrasound. Case Presentation: In this paper, the authors describe a case series of long COVID followed up for 9 months at the Department of Pediatrics of the University Luigi Vanvitelli. The review of the lite-rature was performed on PubMed using the keywords COVID-19, follow-up, children, and lung ul-trasound. The aim of this article was to highlight the need to create custom follow-up programs for long Covid in children through the description of a case followed up at our Pediatric Department and a review of the current literature Discussion: The reversal of pathological lung ultrasound signs occurred in six or nine months des-pite the early improvement of respiratory symptoms and pulmonary function. There are limited stu-dies on the ultrasonography follow-up of kids with COVID-19 in the literature, and there are still no follow-up COVID-19 guidelines for paediatric population. Conclusion: Pathological lung ultrasound in children recovered from COVID-19, may take time to resolve; therefore, evaluating patients with lung ultrasound in the following months could be a ra-diation-saving approach useful for children who have fully recovered and have no warning signs.