According to researchers, some children face severe heart problems after a rare illness associated with COVID-19

Austin (KXAN) — Dr. Alvaro Moreira has poured into hundreds of cases trying to better understand the mysterious illness that develops after COVID-19 infection.

His team analyzed and investigated the diagnosis of multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) in children.

by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The disease can cause inflammation in various parts of the body, including the heart.

“One of the findings of further concern is a subset of this very small child who developed this condition, with 90% undergoing ultrasound cardiac assessment and 54% having abnormal cardiac function. That was it, “said Dr. Moreira. ..

He is a neonatal scholar University of Texas San Antonio Health Science Center Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine..

The research team looked at 39 studies and reviewed 662 MIS-C cases from around the world between January 1st and July 25th. Confirmed cases include newborns to 18 years of age. Two larger studies included data from the US case.

“Many of these children are treated in the intensive care unit with a multidisciplinary treatment team, some of them will need medication to help make their heart pumps more efficient.” Said Moreira. “When a child or individual is diagnosed with this condition, it can cause very serious complications and requires a lifelong imaging of the heart.”

Lifelong complications

A few months after the diagnosis of MIS-C, Michelle Jones from Georgetown said she monitors her daughter, Adelin Shed, blood pressure, and oxygen levels daily.

“She’s still struggling to breathe and she’s still really tired … not just herself,” Jones said. “Following the cardiologist, he was also worried about how slow her heart rate was … and just told him to monitor it and monitor it at home.”

Jones explained that a 16-year-old child stayed at the Del Children’s Medical Center for more than two weeks during the summer. She said her daughter was diagnosed with MIS-C after getting COVID-19.

She explained that Adeline had shown significant improvements when she was released from the hospital, but earlier this month she had to hurry back to Dell Children’s.

“She’s just tired or she’s very ill in her stomach, or she’s having a panic attack because of her heart,” Jones said.

Jones told KXAN investigator Arezow Doost that he was worried about lifelong complications.

“I hope it can probably be corrected with blood pressure medications. The worst scenario she thinks is probably having to get a heart monitor and wear it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. , I even wear a pacemaker, because of my pretty young age. That’s scary. “

Symptoms may appear after a few weeks

Review of medical literature published in, Clinical medicine, Journal Lancet We also found that MIS-C was attacking healthy children without warning.

“What we have discovered is that even in the absence of symptoms, this very serious condition can develop,” said Dr. Moreira.

He said most children who received COVID-19 would recover without complications. However, he noted that the study began to surface the symptoms of MIS-C 3-4 weeks after infection.

He said that if the child had a fever, abdominal pain, skin rash, vomiting, redness to the white of the eyes, they would immediately need to see a doctor.

A Texas Health Department spokesman currently has 22 cases. State-wide MIS-CEight confirmed cases have been reported in central Texas. The online data has not been updated yet.

According to the state, about two-thirds of cases are Hispanic children, and nearly 60% are boys.

Dr. Moreira said that African-American or African-Caribbean children found by his team around the world account for about 35% of cases.

He said another finding included that nearly half of patients with MIS-C had an underlying medical condition, and among them, half of the individuals were obese or overweight. Told.

Moreira explained in a case study that the amount of inflammation in MIS-C was found to be much more severe than two similar pediatric diseases, Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome.

He said that commonly used treatments for these pediatric conditions are working.