The goal of a new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine was to understand how COVID-19 infection affects the brain and nervous system in children. The results were published in "Pediatric Neurology".
Scientists characterized the incidence, impact, and risk factors of neurological symptoms in hospitalized children with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection or childhood multisystemic inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C).
The most common neurological symptoms in children following COVID-10 infection were headaches and a disorder known as acute encephalopathy.
Research shows that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can affect young patients in different ways: it can cause an acute disease where symptoms appear soon after infection, or an inflammatory condition called MIS-C may develop on a few weeks after being infected.
Scientists recruited 30 pediatric intensive care centers around the world. Out of 1,493 hospitalized children, 1,278 (86%) were diagnosed with acute SARS-CoV-2; 215 subjects (14%) were diagnosed with MIS-C, a multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, which usually appears several weeks after the end of the infection and is characterized by fever, inflammation and organ dysfunction.
The most common neurological symptoms associated with acute COVID-19 were headache, acute encephalopathy, and seizures, while patients with MIS-C most often experienced headache, acute encephalopathy, and dizziness. Less common symptoms seen in both groups included loss of smell, blurred vision, stroke, and psychosis.
"Fortunately, child mortality is low in both acute SARS-CoV-2 and MIS-C," said the author of the study. "However, this study shows that the frequency of neurological symptoms is high - and may be higher than we found, as these symptoms are not always documented or evaluable," she added
The analysis showed that neurological symptoms were more common in children with MIS-C compared to patients with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Children with MIS-C had two or more neurological symptoms more often than children with acute disease.
A team of experts has recently launched a follow-up study,to determine whether acute SARS-CoV-2 and MIS-C infection - with or without neurological symptoms - have a lasting impact on children's he alth and quality of life after discharge from hospital.