Ferrero P, Piazza I. Cardio-thoracic imaging and COVID-19 in the pediatric population: A narrative review. World J Radiol 2021; 13(4): 94-101 [PMID: 33968312 DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v13.i4.94]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Paolo Ferrero, FESC, MD, ACHD Unit–Pediatric and Adult Congenital Heart Centre, IRCCS-Policlinico San Donato, Via Morandi 30, San Donato Milanese 20097, Milan, Italy. ferrerop41@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Radiol. Apr 28, 2021; 13(4): 94-101 Published online Apr 28, 2021. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v13.i4.94
Cardio-thoracic imaging and COVID-19 in the pediatric population: A narrative review
Paolo Ferrero, Isabelle Piazza
Paolo Ferrero, ACHD Unit–Pediatric and Adult Congenital Heart Centre, IRCCS-Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese 20097, Milan, Italy
Isabelle Piazza, Department of Emergency Medicine, ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo 24127, Italy
Author contributions: Ferrero P wrote the paper; Piazza I performed and collected the data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Paolo Ferrero, FESC, MD, ACHD Unit–Pediatric and Adult Congenital Heart Centre, IRCCS-Policlinico San Donato, Via Morandi 30, San Donato Milanese 20097, Milan, Italy. ferrerop41@gmail.com
Received: January 21, 2021 Peer-review started: January 21, 2021 First decision: February 12, 2021 Revised: February 19, 2021 Accepted: April 13, 2021 Article in press: April 13, 2021 Published online: April 28, 2021 Processing time: 90 Days and 13.9 Hours
Abstract
Worldwide experience about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemics suggests that symptomatic disease is significantly less frequent in the pediatric age range. Nevertheless, multi-system inflammatory syndrome has been consistently reported in children and has been associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 exposure. In this paper we give an overview of the multimodality chest imaging of pediatric patients with suspected COVID-19, focusing on relevant differences with adults.
Core Tip: Although the pattern of lung involvement of coronavirus disease 2019 in children reproduces the pathology described in the general population, traditional imaging modalities have several limitations in this age group. Specific and unique findings are mainly related to the occurrence of multi-system inflammatory syndrome which is a peculiar complication reproducibly reported in the pediatric population. This syndrome is characterized by occurrence of atypical symptoms as compared with presentation in adult and multimodality imaging approach has to be contemplated.
