The early findings suggest that half of children in a small study who had a rare but serious inflammatory disease after a coronavirus infection developed neurological symptoms.
Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan of University College London in the United Kingdom, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology, and his team shared preliminary findings Tuesday before a virtual presentation at the 73rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.
Researchers looked at records for pediatric patients admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London from April to September 2020, which meet the criteria for multisystem inflammation disorder in children (MIS-C), also known as PIMS-TS. The children were on average 10 years old and 80% of the patients were of non-white ethnicities.
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MIS-C is a condition that often causes inflammation of various parts of the body, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs, according to the CDC, which shows on its website that the state reports cases up to March 29 a total of 3,185 and included 36 deaths.
“With this new inflammatory syndrome developing after children are infected with the coronavirus, we are still learning how the syndrome affects children and what to watch out for,” Abdel-Mannan said in an accompanying statement. “We have found that many children experience neurological symptoms that involve both the central and peripheral nervous systems.”
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The results indicated that 24 of 46 patients with the rare inflammatory disease also had neurological symptoms. Half of the entire group experienced headaches, while encephalopathy (brain disease affecting function or structure) was reported in 14 cases. Speech problems and hallucinations were also reported, but were less frequent. Fewer cases included uncoordinated movement, seizures and damage to the peripheral nerves.
The early findings suggest that neurological symptoms are seen more frequently in more severe cases. Patients who experienced neurological problems also had an increased chance of needing a ventilator or medication that supported blood circulation, compared with MIS-C patients who did not experience neurological manifestations.
“Children who develop this condition should definitely be judged on neurological symptoms and cognitive outcomes in the longer term,” Abdel-Mannan said. “More studies are needed to follow more children and children to see how this condition changes over time and whether there are longer-term neurocognitive effects.”
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The news comes a week after researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published findings in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, suggesting that most children who develop MIS-C have no or only mild symptoms of COVID. 19 when they were initially infected. .
The study looked at nearly 1,800 cases of MIS-C reported to the CDC between March 2020 and mid-January this year. The study included children up to 20 years of age, although most were under 15 years of age.
The study authors found that the majority of the patients studied – about 75% – did not experience symptoms of COVID-19 when they had a coronavirus infection. When patients later developed MIS-C, usually about two to five weeks later, fever was one of the most common symptoms, the CDC analysis found.
Fox News’ Madeline Farber contributed to this report.