TY - JOUR AU - Kepenekli, Eda AU - Yakut, Nurhayat AU - Ergenc, Zeynep AU - Aydıner, Ömer AU - Sarınoğlu, Rabia Can AU - Karahasan, Ayşegül AU - Karakoc-Aydıner, Elif AU - Memişoğlu, Aslı AU - Gökdemir, Yasemin AU - Eralp, Ela Erdem AU - Ergenekon, Pınar AU - Karadağ, Bülent AU - Tezel, Kübra Gökçe AU - Aydın, Murat AU - Şenyürek, Betül AU - Boran, Perran PY - 2022/01/31 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - COVID-19 disease characteristics in different pediatric age groups JF - The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries JA - J Infect Dev Ctries VL - 16 IS - 01 SE - Coronavirus Pandemic DO - 10.3855/jidc.15353 UR - https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/35192517 SP - 16-24 AB - <p>Introduction: Little is known about the COVID-19 disease characteristics and differences between different pediatric age groups. This study aimed to investigate the disease characteristics according to age groups.</p><p>Methodology: We conducted a retrospective, single-center study of pediatric COVID-19 in a tertiary care hospital in Turkey. The patients were divided into three groups: 15 days-24 months old (Group 1), 25-144 months old (Group 2), and 145-210 months old (Group 3) according to age.</p><p>Results: A total of 139 pediatric patients with COVID-19 were examined. Twenty-nine patients (20.9%) were in Group 1, 52 (37.4%) were in Group 2, 58 (41.7%) were in Group 3. Thirty-nine patients (28.1%) were hospitalized. The most common symptoms were cough (55.4%) and fever (51.8%). The median chest X-ray (CXR) score of hospitalized patients was 1 (min 0-max 7), and the median CXR score of outpatients was 1 (min 0-max 6). Fever was significantly more frequent in Group 1, and chest pain was more frequent in Group 3. Group 1 had significantly higher WBC, lymphocyte, thrombocyte counts, AST, LDH, D-dimer, and Troponin T levels but lower hemoglobin, total protein, and albumin levels. The treatment included antibiotics, oseltamivir, hydroxychloroquine, and supportive therapy. Only one patient (0.7%) received non-invasive mechanical ventilatory support.</p><p>Conclusions: As we know the clinical course of COVID-19 in children is less severe than in adults. We also found significant differences in both clinical and laboratory findings between different pediatric age groups which supports the theory that disease pathogenesis is highly variable according to age.</p> ER -