Intriguing new faces of Covid-19: persisting clinical symptoms and cardiac effects in children

Erol, Nurdan; Alpinar, Abdullah; Erol, Cigdem; Sari, Erdal; Alkan, Kubra

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to evaluate the persisting Covid-19-related symptoms of the cases included in our study and to assess their cardiac findings to determine the impact of Covid-19 on children’s cardiovascular health. METHODS: In this study, 121 children between the ages of 0– and 18 with Covid-19 were evaluated based on their history, blood pressure values, and electrocardiography and echocardiography results. These findings were compared with the findings of the control group which consisted of 95 healthy cases who were in the same age range as the study group and did not have Covid-19. The results were evaluated using the statistics program, SPSS 21. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the study group and the control group in terms of age, weight, and body mass index. The clinical symptoms (chest and back pain, dizziness, headache, palpitation, fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of balance, coughing) of 37.2% of the cases persisted for at least 1 month after Covid-19 recovery. Statistically significant differences were found in systolic blood pressure, left ventricular ejection fraction, relative wall thickness, and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion. CONCLUSION: The continuation of some cases’ clinical symptoms post-recovery indicates that long Covid infection can be observed in children. The fact that statistically significant differences were observed between the echocardiographic parameters of the study and control groups suggests that Covid-19 may have effects on the cardiovascular system. To shed light on the long Covid cases among children and the infection’s cardiac impacts, it would be beneficial to conduct more comprehensive studies on this matter.