Demographic and Laboratory Findings of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic COVID-19 in Children

Introduction: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a newly described pathogen that is usually transmitted by droplets between person to person. Although the clinical spectrum of COVID-19 ranges from asymptomatic disease to the development of severe acute respiratory distress, children are generally milder than adults. It was aimed to compare the clinical and laboratory values of symptomatic and asymptomatic children followed up with a diagnosis of COVID-19 in this study. Materials and Methods: The records of children with nasopharyngeal swab SARS-CoV-2 Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction test positive were analyzed retrospectively. Children with symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, diarrhea and/or vomiting were accepted as symptomatic, and children with positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR in a nasopharyngeal swab taken only due to contact history and have no symptoms were considered asymptomatic. Results: A total of 197 patients, 47 (23.8%) symptomatic and 150 (76.2%) asymptomatic, were included in the study. The mean age of the children was 9.1 +/- 5.2 years (range, 1 month-17 years). Cough (8.6%) was the most common symptom at admission. When the symptomatic and asymptomatic children were compared in terms of white blood cell (WBC), WBC subgroups, C-reactive protein there was no statistically significant difference. No significant increase was found in the CRP values of symptomatic patients. Ground-glass opacities compatible with COVID-19 was detected in only 10 (30%) of 33 symptomatic patients who underwent thoracic tomography. Conclusion: COVID-19 is usually mild in children. At the same time, a significant change in laboratory parameters and imaging findings may not be observed in symptomatic and/or asymptomatic children with positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR.