Cardiac Outcome of Children With SARS-CoV-2 Related Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome

OBJECTIVE: To study the cardiac outcomes of patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) after 6-month of diagnosis. METHODS: This review of hospital records was conducted on MIS-C patients (aged <21 years) who completed a six-month follow-up. The baseline demographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment characteristics during the acute phase, and echocardiographic findings during follow-up were collected. RESULTS: 116 patients (61.2% male, median age 7 years) with MIS-C were included in the study. At the time of admission, cardiac abnormalities were present in 70.7% of MIS-C patients, and the most common cardiac abnormalities were valve failure (50.9%), followed by ventricular dysfunction (39.7%), and pericardial effusion (23.3%). Six month after diagnosis, cardiac abnormalities were found in 10.3% of patients, and patients had lower rates of ventricular dysfunction (P<0.001), valve failure (P<0.001), pericardial effusion (P<0.001), and coronary involvement (P<0.001) as compared to the baseline. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and steroid treatment significantly reduced the odds of occurrence of ventricular dysfunction (P=0.002), valve failure (P=0.004), and low ejection fraction (P=0.002) in comparison to IVIG treatment alone. CONCLUSION: While most MIS-C patients had abnormal echocardiographic findings at admission, only 10.3% of patients had cardiac abnormalities during follow up.