Heart problems in children who develop the rare inflammatory condition linked to COVID-19 resolve within a few months, a new study suggests.
Researchers looked at 45 youngsters diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a condition in which different body parts become inflamed.
The majority had some level of cardiac dysfunction that included severe problems including a worsened ability of the heart to pump properly and leaky heart valves.
However, within four months, all pediatric patients saw their cardiac issues resolves and biomarkers fall to normal levels.
The team, from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and NewYork-Presbyterian, says the findings suggest that moat children recover from the illness without suffering long-term heart damage.
A new study looked at 45 children in New York diagnosed with MIS-C, a condition in which different body parts become inflamed linked to COVID-19, most of whom had some type of heart issue. Pictured: A five-year-old child in a hospital bed at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, May 2020
Heart issues and inflammatory biomarkers began falling within one to four weeks of being discharged and, within four months, all heart problems and biomarkers had fallen to normal normal levels (above with shaded grey indicating normal levels)
'We've learned that COVID causes a spectrum of illness in children. Some are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and a small number of kids who develop MIS-C become critically ill, requiring admission to the ICU,' said first author Dr Kanwal Farooqi, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
'It is a relief that this study shows that most of the severe heart and immunologic manifestations we saw in kids with
