Published online Mar 20, 2022. doi: 10.5493/wjem.v12.i2.26
Peer-review started: October 30, 2021
First decision: December 27, 2021
Revised: December 29, 2021
Accepted: February 27, 2022
Article in press: February 27, 2022
Published online: March 20, 2022
Even though coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) clinical course in children is much milder than in adults, pneumonia can occur in the pediatric population as well.
To report a single-center pediatric case series of COVID-19 from Kazakhstan during the first wave of pandemic.
To analyze the main clinical and laboratory aspects in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positive and negative children diagnosed with pneumonia.
Retrospective analysis of 54 children, who were medically assessed because they were close contacts of COVID-19 adults in their family setting, between June and September 2020. The clinical and laboratory characteristics of children affected with pneumonia in the presence (group 1) or absence (group 2) of SARS-CoV-2 infection, were compared.
No significant differences were found between the study groups for any clinical and laboratory parameters, except for C-reactive protein. Both pneumonia groups showed higher C-reactive protein values than COVID-19 children without pneumonia, overall; however, the COVID-19 pneumonia group 1 showed a significantly higher increase of C-reactive protein compared to group 2 (SARS-CoV-2 negative pneumonia).
In our case series of children assessed for SARS-CoV-2 infection based on contact tracing, the acute inflammatory response and, in detail, C-reactive protein increase resulted to be more pronounced in COVID-19 children with pneumonia than in children with SARS-CoV-2 negative pneumonia.
Larger, controlled and more complete clinical studies are needed to verify the different aspects of (acute) systemic inflammation in children with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia.