Open AccessCOVID-19 Infection in Well-Appearing 30- to 90-Day-Old Infants with Fever without a Source
Author(s) -
Ali Güngör,
İlknur Bodur,
Aytaç Göktüğ,
Muhammed Mustafa Güneylioğlu,
Betül Öztürk,
Raziye Merve Yaradılmış,
Rümeysa Yalçınkaya,
Can Demir Karacan,
Nilden Tuygun
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of tropical pediatrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.464
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1465-3664
pISSN - 0142-6338
DOI - 10.1093/tropej/fmac046
Subject(s) - medicine , white blood cell , absolute neutrophil count , irritability , gastroenterology , covid-19 , emergency department , c reactive protein , antibiotics , pediatrics , immunology , inflammation , disease , neutropenia , chemotherapy , infectious disease (medical specialty) , menopause , psychiatry , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Fever without a source (FWS) is common clinical status in the young infants. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and laboratory findings of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection in well-appearing infants with FWS. Well-appearing febrile infants between 30 and 90 days who were evaluated as FWS in the pediatric emergency department and tested for COVID-19 were divided into two groups: COVID-19 (+) and (-). The clinical and laboratory findings of the patients were compared. The study included 95 febrile infants with FWS, and the mean age was 59.62 ± 16.82 days. The nasopharyngeal COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction test results of 29/95 (30.5%) patients were positive, while 66/95 (69.5%) were negative. The complaints of irritability and nasal congestion were found to be significantly more common in COVID-19-positive patients (p = 0.04 and p = 0.041, respectively). The hospitalization rate (p = 0.009), length of hospital stay (p = 0.026), initiation of antibiotic treatment (p < 0.001) and duration of antibiotic treatment (p = 0.036) were significantly lower in the COVID-19 (+) patients. The C-reactive protein (CRP, p < 0.001), absolute neutrophil count (ANC, p < 0.001), absolute lymphocyte count (ALC, p = 0.015), white blood cell (WBC, p < 0.001) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII, p < 0.001) were found to be significantly lower in the COVID-19 (+) patient group. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of neutropenia, lymphopenia or leukopenia.