Laboratory abnormalities in children with novel coronavirus disease 2019

The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 continues to be a worldwide pandemic. Yet, little is still known about the biological features of this emergent infection in children. In this prospective study, we collected 68 children infected with SARS-COV-2 from March 2020 to May 2020, in Marrakesh, Morocco. No severe cases were observed in this cohort, and 66% of the patients were asymptomatic. The main laboratory abnormalities were hematological, as we found Leucopoenia in 4.4% of the cases, hyperleukocytosis in 1.6%. Neutropenia was found in 5 patients (7%) and only 2 cases (3%) had Lymphopenia. The inflammation and coagulation biomarkers were normal in the majority of the cases, as for liver and kidney function. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) serum levels were elevated in 8 cases (11.67%). The COVID-19 in children seems to have mild course and better outcome than in adults, which impacts the laboratory findings in this category. More studies must be conducted to learn more about the laboratory abnormalities in pediatric COVID-19.

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