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COVID-19 in Infants Less than 3 Months: Severe or Not Severe Disease?

Authors :
Daniele Dona’
Carlotta Montagnani
Costanza Di Chiara
Elisabetta Venturini
Luisa Galli
Andrea Lo Vecchio
Marco Denina
Nicole Olivini
Eugenia Bruzzese
Andrea Campana
Roberta Giacchero
Filippo Salvini
Antonella Meini
Matteo Ponzoni
Sandra Trapani
Elena Rossi
Mary Haywood Lombardi
Raffaele Badolato
Luca Pierri
Giulia Pruccoli
Sara Rossin
Claudia Colomba
Salvatore Cazzato
Ilaria Pacati
Giangiacomo Nicolini
Luca Pierantoni
Sonia Bianchini
Andrzej Krzysztofiak
Silvia Garazzino
Carlo Giaquinto
Guido Castelli Gattinara
on behalf of The Italian SITIP-SIP Pediatric SARS-CoV-2 Infection Study Group
Source :
Viruses, Vol 14, Iss 10, p 2256 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

Compared to adults, severe or fatal COVID-19 disease is much less common in children. However, a higher risk for progression has been reported in infants. Different pediatric COVID-19 severity scores are reported in the literature. Methods: Subjects under 90 days of age admitted to 35 Italian institutions for COVID-19 were included. The severity of COVID-19 was scored as mild/moderate or severe/critical following the classification reported in the literature by Venturini, Dong, Kanburoglu, and Gale. To assess the diagnostic accuracy of each classification system, we stratified all enrolled patients developing a posteriori severity score based on clinical presentation and outcomes and then compared all different scores analyzed. Results: We included 216 infants below 90 days of age. The most common symptom was fever, followed by coryza, poor feeding, cough, and gastrointestinal manifestations. According to Venturini, Dong, Kanburoglu, and Gale’s severity scores, 18%, 6%, 4.2%, and 29.6% of infants presented with severe/critical disease, respectively. A correlation analysis between these four scores and the a posteriori severity score assigned to all enrolled subjects was performed, and a crescent strength of correlation from Gale (R = 0.355, p < 0.001) to Venturini (R = 0.425, p < 0.001), Dong (R = 0.734, p < 0.001), and Kanburoglu (R = 0.859, p < 0.001) was observed. Conclusions: The percentage of infants with severe COVID-19 varies widely according to the score systems. A unique clinical score should be designed for neonates and infants with COVID-19.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19994915
Volume :
14
Issue :
10
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Viruses
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.7e969b7118c747a7ac2bf4e849762fe2
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/v14102256