Clinical findings and laboratory parameters associated with CO-RADS classification in children with COVID-19

The aim of this study was to determine whether there are proven associations between CO-RADS categorizations and clinical and laboratory findings in children diagnosed with COVID-19 infection.

This is a retrospective observational study that includes the clinical and radiological data of pediatric patients who were admitted to both Minia University Hospital and Minia Insurance Hospital with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, detected via reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) from nasopharyngeal swabs obtained between June 2022 and February 2023. Patients were divided into 5 groups based on the severity of involvement in chest CT.

This study involved a total of 62 children who were confirmed to have COVID-19 infection. The most commonly observed symptoms in these children were fever (91.9%), shortness of breath (88.7%), and cough (87.1%). In addition, vomiting (24.2%), diarrhea (12.9%), impaired consciousness (11.2%), and convulsions (9.7%) were also reported. Significant differences were observed between CO-RADS classes in relation to patient gender, severity of respiratory distress, presence of cough, occurrence of diarrhea, elevated LDH levels, and prognosis.

The CO-RADS classification exhibited positive correlations with inflammatory biomarkers such as total leucocytic count, LDH, D-dimer, serum ferritin, and AST. Conversely, the CO-RADS classification showed negative correlations with ionized calcium levels, hemoglobin, and platelet count.