Introduction:
A novel pediatric disease, MIS-C, has emerged during the COVID -19 pandemic. The majority of cases were reported from European and Northeastern US centers. We present our experience of MIS-C with cardiac findings from a large tertiary pediatric cardiac center.
Methods:
We conducted a retrospective study of all MIS-C patients evaluated and treated from 03/29/2020 to 6/18/2020 at our center. Demographics, clinical, echo and ECG data were extracted from the echo database and EHR. Abnormal cardiac findings during the acute phase were defined as coronary artery abnormality (CAA), decreased ejection fraction (EF) and rhythm abnormality. CAAs were defined as dilation (z-score of > 2 to ≤ 2.49) or aneurysm (2.5 to < 5) as well as reviewed for qualitative changes.
Results:
32 children, 17 (53%) males have been treated for MIS-C. The median (IQR) age was 9 (7 - 13) years. Underlying medical conditions were noted in 9 (28%) patients including 2 with cardiac conditions (one with previous history of atypical Kawasaki Disease (KD) and one with previous history of pericardial effusion s/p pericardial window). Ten (31%) patients had abnormal cardiac findings; 4 had isolated CAA, 3 had combined CAA and low EF and 2 had isolated low EF. One patient had aneurysms in all 3 CA’s, 2 patients had abnormalities in 2 CA’s (LMCA and RCA aneurysms in 1 and LMCA aneurysm and LAD dilation in 1 patient), and 4 patients had single CAA (RCA dilation in 1, LAD aneurysm in 1, and LAD dilation in 2 patients). No patient with CAA had morphologic evidence of saccular or fusiform changes. CAA persisted on subsequent echo in 3 patients and normalized in 3 patients. EF normalized on subsequent echo in 3 patients. One of the patients with isolated low EF was also found to have intermittent high grade atrioventricular (AV) block. The 10
th
patient had normal echo but 1st degree AV block, sinus bradycardia, and long QTc. No arrhythmia was noted. No mortality occurred and overall length of stay was 13.6±9 days.
Conclusion:
Our MIS-C patients had a high rate of cardiac findings in the acute phase which exceeded rates historically observed in the setting of KD. Further long term study is needed to assess if the cardiac abnormalities persist, improve with immune modulation or are associated with major cardiac events.
Rapidly Progressive Atrioventricular Block in a Patient with Sarcoidosis
