Comparison of paraclinical finding of COVID-19 in children and adolescents with adults admitted to Shahid Beheshti hospital in Kashan from 2020 until 2021

COVID-19 is an emerging viral disease that has led to many deaths worldwide over the past 2 years. However, due to the lower incidence of the disease in children, the information available to compare children and adults with COVID-19 is still limited. Therefore, this study was designed to compare the paraclinical findings of children and adults with COVID-19.

After extracting laboratory findings, CT scan and outcome of hospitalization of children and adults hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Shahid Beheshti hospital in Kashan from March 2020 to March 2021 through HIS and PACS systems, all this information were compared between children and adults.

After analyzing the data of 15 children and 66 adults, it was observed that increased CRP (P=0.030), LDH (P=0.002) and lymphopenia (P<0.001) and hyponatremia (P=0.030) were higher in adults but increased creatinine (P<0.001) was observed more in children. Also, ground-glass opacity (P=0.020) was observed more in children than adults, but Halo sign (P=0.001) and lung severity score (P<0.001) was higher in adults.

Children and adults with COVID-19 differ in many ways, including CRP, LDH, lymphocyte, sodium, and creatinine laboratory tests. This difference is seen in some radiological findings, and the lung severity score on CT scans of adults is higher than children, also.