The new syndrome emerged last month after hospitals in London admitted a number of children to intensive care units with symptoms that resembled toxic shock mixed with an inflammatory disorder known as Kawasaki disease.
About 100 children in Britain have been treated for the disease. Many have been admitted with a persistent fever, skin rashes, abdominal pain and cold hands or feet. At least two children in the UK have died of the disorder, one of whom was an eight-month-old baby at Plymouth’s Derriford hospital in April.
Researchers at Imperial College London analysed blood from some of the sickest children and found they had high levels of five compounds that can be measured in routine tests. Two of the compounds, ferritin and C-reactive protein or CRP, are common blood markers for inflammation. The others are linked to heart damage and blood clotting, namely troponin, BNP and so-called “D-dimers”.
“We know that these markers are present in the very sick patients and at lower levels in some patients with normal Kawasaki disease,” said Michael Levin, a professor of paediatrics and international child health at Imperial.
“This peak will tail off as the whole Covid peak tails off and we are already seeing that,” Viner said. “But if Covid is going to be with us for a while, and there’s going to be a rise in Covid cases, we are going to see more of these cases. So we absolutely need ways of identifying early on which children might have this as opposed to a child who just presents with a fever, so biomarkers might be exceptionally helpful in the longer term.”
Article submitted by, Darkillusion.
