Cardiac Outcomes Good for Children With COVID-19-Related MIS-C

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Children with COVID-19-related multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) have good functional recovery and coronary outcomes at three to four months, according to a study published online Jan. 19 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Daisuke Matsubara, M.D., Ph.D., from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues analyzed cardiac outcomes among 60 controls and 60 cases with MIS-C. Conventional echocardiograms and deformation parameters were analyzed at the acute phase, subacute phase (median, three days after initial echocardiography), one-month follow-up (median, 22 days), and three- to four-month follow-up (median, 91 days).

The researchers found that within the first week, all deformation parameters recovered, including left ventricular global longitudinal strain, peak left atrial strain, longitudinal early diastolic strain rate, and right ventricular free wall strain, followed by continual improvement and complete normalization by three months. There was a median of six days to normalization of global longitudinal strain and left atrial strain. Short-term outcomes were not affected by myocardial injury at presentation (70 percent of cases). At presentation, four patients (7 percent) had small coronary aneurysms, all of which resolved. Residual edema was seen in only one of nine patients, but there was no fibrosis observed on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

"Recovery among these children was excellent," a coauthor said in a statement. "These results have important implications for our health care teams managing care for children with MIS-C. Our findings may also provide guidance for a gradual return to playing sports after cardiac clearance three to four months later."

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