50% of Kids With Inflammatory Syndrome After COVID-19 Have Neurological Symptoms

Half of the children who developed the serious condition associated with COVID-19, called childhood multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), had neurological symptoms or signs when they entered the hospital, according to preliminary research released today, April 13, 2021, has been released. will be presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, to be held April 17-22, 2021. Those symptoms include headaches, encephalopathy and hallucinations.

“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 look out for,” said study author Omar Abdel-Mannan, MD, of University College London in the UK. and member of the American Academy of Neurology. “We found that many children experienced neurological symptoms involving both the central and peripheral nervous systems.”

For the study, researchers looked at the data of all children under the age of 18 who were admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London between April 4, 2020 and September 1, 2020 and who met the criteria for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.

There were 46 children with an average age of 10 years. Of these, 24 children had neurological symptoms or signs that they had not previously experienced. Twenty-four had headaches, 14 had encephalopathy, six had voice disorders or hoarseness, six had hallucinations, and five had ataxia or incoordination. In addition, three children had peripheral nerve problems and one child had seizures.

The children with neurological symptoms were more likely to use a ventilator and medication to stabilize their blood circulation than the children without neurological symptoms. However, there were no differences in terms of demographics, inflammatory markers, management, or short-term outcomes between the two groups.

“Children who develop this condition should definitely be assessed for neurological symptoms and longer-term cognitive outcomes,” said Abdel-Mannan. “More studies involving more children and monitoring children are needed to see how this condition changes over time and whether there are longer-term neurocognitive effects.”

Meeting: 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology