0000000000125676
AUTHOR
Elisabetta Venturini
Factors Associated With Severe Gastrointestinal Diagnoses in Children With SARS-CoV-2 Infection or Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome
Key Points Question Is COVID-19 associated with severe gastrointestinal manifestations in children? Findings In this multicenter cohort study of 685 Italian children with COVID-19, 10% showed severe gastrointestinal involvement characterized by diffuse adeno-mesenteritis, appendicitis, abdominal fluid collection, ileal intussusception, or pancreatitis. Children older than 5 years and those presenting with abdominal pain, leukopenia, or receiving a diagnosis of multisystem inflammatory syndrome were more likely to have severe gastrointestinal manifestations. Meaning Severe gastrointestinal involvement is not uncommon in children with COVID-19, and awareness about its frequency and presentati…
Epidemiology, Clinical Features and Prognostic Factors of Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Results From an Italian Multicenter Study
Background: Many aspects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents remain unclear and optimal treatment is debated. The objective of our study was to investigate epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic characteristics of pediatric SARS-CoV-2 infection, focusing on risk factors for complicated and critical disease.Methods: The present multicenter Italian study was promoted by the Italian Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, involving both pediatric hospitals and general pediatricians/family doctors. All subjects under 18 years of age with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and referred to the coordinating center were enrolled from March 2020.Results: As of 15 September 2020, 75…
COVID-19 in Infants Less than 3 Months: Severe or Not Severe Disease?
Abstract: Compared to adults, severe or fatal COVID-19 disease is much less common in children. However, a higher risk for progression has been reported in infants. Different pediatric COVID-19 severity scores are reported in the literature. Methods: Subjects under 90 days of age admitted to 35 Italian institutions for COVID-19 were included. The severity of COVID-19 was scored as mild/moderate or severe/critical following the classification reported in the literature by Venturini, Dong, Kanburoglu, and Gale. To assess the diagnostic accuracy of each classification system, we stratified all enrolled patients developing a posteriori severity score based on clinical presentation and outcomes…
Severe Gastrointestinal Features in Children with COVID-19: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study
Background: Severe gastrointestinal (GI) involvement has been occasionally reported in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection or among those with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). We aimed to investigate the clinical, radiological and histopathological GI characteristics in order to identify factors associated with severe outcome. Methods: In this multicenter retrospective nationwide cohort study, symptomatic children with laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection or MIS-C were enrolled. Children who received a diagnosis of acute abdomen, appendicitis, intussusception, pancreatitis, diffuse adeno-mesenteritis or abdominal fluid collections requiring surgical consultation and temporally…
Sensitivity of three commercial tests for SARS-CoV-2 serology in children: an Italian multicentre prospective study
Abstract Background US Food and Drug Administration has issued Emergency Use Authorizations for hundreds of serological assays to support Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) diagnosis. The aim of this study is to evaluate, for the first time in children, the performance of three widely utilized SARS-CoV-2 serology commercial assays, Diesse Diagnostics (IgG, IgA, IgM) and Roche Diagnostics, both Roche Nucleocapsid (N) IgG and Roche Spike (S) IgG assays. Methods Sensitivity and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for each of the three different serological tests and mixed and direct comparison were performed. Univariate and multivariate Poisson regression mo…
Surgical Antimicrobial Prophylaxis in Abdominal Surgery for Neonates and Paediatrics: A RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method Consensus Study.
Surgical site infections (SSIs), i.e., surgery-related infections that occur within 30 days after surgery without an implant and within one year if an implant is placed, complicate surgical procedures in up to 10% of cases, but an underestimation of the data is possible since about 50% of SSIs occur after the hospital discharge. Gastrointestinal surgical procedures are among the surgical procedures with the highest risk of SSIs, especially when colon surgery is considered. Data that were collected from children seem to indicate that the risk of SSIs can be higher than in adults. This consensus document describes the use of preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis in neonates and children that ar…