Ji GH, Li B, Wu ZC, Wang W, Xiong H. Infant with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction confirmed COVID-19 and normal chest computed tomography: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(27): 9845-9850 [PMID: 36186202 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i27.9845]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hao Xiong, MS, Professor, Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Yangtze University, No. 55 North Jianghan Road, Shashi District, Jingzhou 434000, Hubei Province, China. xh671201@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Infectious Diseases
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
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 Clin Cases. Sep 26, 2022; 10(27): 9845-9850 Published online Sep 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i27.9845
Infant with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction confirmed COVID-19 and normal chest computed tomography: A case report
Guang-Hai Ji, Bo Li, Zu-Chuang Wu, Wei Wang, Hao Xiong
Guang-Hai Ji, Bo Li, Hao Xiong, Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Yangtze University, The First People’s Hospital of Jingzhou, Jingzhou 434000, Hubei Province, China
Zu-Chuang Wu, Department of Pediatric, The First Affiliated Hospital of Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434000, Hubei Province, China
Wei Wang, Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434000, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: Ji GH and Li B contributed equally to this work. Ji GH, Li B and Wang W collected the patient’s data and images and wrote the original manuscript; Wu ZC took part in the diagnosis and treatment of the patient; Xiong H was responsible for revising the draft; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflict of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hao Xiong, MS, Professor, Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Yangtze University, No. 55 North Jianghan Road, Shashi District, Jingzhou 434000, Hubei Province, China. xh671201@163.com
Received: April 27, 2022 Peer-review started: April 27, 2022 First decision: June 8, 2022 Revised: June 27, 2022 Accepted: August 21, 2022 Article in press: August 21, 2022 Published online: September 26, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a highly pathogenic respiratory disease that mainly affects adults and elderly patients. Yet, over the past three years, there were an increasing number of infected children; however, only a few cases of infants with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-confirmed COVID-19 and chest computed tomography (CT) normal have been reported. Herein, we reported a single case of a patient (a 3-mo-old girl) with COVID-19, including her clinical and imaging findings.
CASE SUMMARY
The patient with fever, diarrhea came to fever clinic. Her chest CT was normal. The patient was treated accordingly, the fever disappeared while diarrhea persisted, what’s more, RT-PCR testing of nasopharyngeal swab showed positive results; thus, the patient was admitted to the pediatric department on the 5th day of onset. The child was given systematic treatment, and all her symptoms significantly improved. Consecutive RT-PCR tests were negative after examining the pharyngeal swabs but positive after analyzing anal swabs. She was discharged on the 31st day of hospitalization.
CONCLUSION
This report provides useful references for treating infantile COVID-19 cases with diarrhea or other non-respiratory symptoms and normal chest CT scan. Given the persistent positive RT-PCR results of anal swabs, the possibility of fecal-oral transmission of COVID-19 should be considered.
Core Tip: This study reports an atypical infantile case of coronavirus disease-2019 accompanied by diarrhea or other non-respiratory symptoms. We presented the medical history and the whole process of diagnosis and management of the case and did a literature review. In this paper, we share our experience, which might provide a useful reference for pediatricians and radiologists.
