{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,19]],"date-time":"2026-10-19T20:39:30Z","timestamp":1792442370080,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"PeerJ","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,4]],"date-time":"2021-06-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1622764800000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To date, information on COVID-19 pediatric patients is still sparse. We aimed to highlight the epidemiological and clinical data regarding SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents to improve the understanding of the disease in this age group and inform physicians during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We conducted a retrospective, observational study in \u201cMarie Curie\u201d Emergency Children\u2019s Hospital from Bucharest, Romania. We analyzed clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the patients confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 infection, between April 1, 2020\u2013October 31, 2020.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      A total of 172 patients aged 0\u201318 years were included, 79 (45.93%) female and 93 (54.07%) male patients. 28 (16.28%) patients had co-morbidities (more often identified in asymptomatic group;\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      &lt; 0.0001). 47 (27.32%) had exposure to an identified source. 30 (17.44%) patients were asymptomatic; 142 (85.56%) had mild or moderate disease. The most frequent symptoms were: pyrexia (78.87%), digestive symptoms (50%), cough (40.14%). Chest X-ray was performed in 50 patients and it was abnormal in half of them, all being symptomatic. About 2\/3 of the evaluated patients had normal leukocytes. The most common hematological change was lymphopenia; monocytes tended to be higher in symptomatic patients. About 40% of the patients were admitted; none required admission to ICU. No significant differences were found between symptomatic and asymptomatic patients regarding gender, age distribution, and exposure to a source.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>All the patients had asymptomatic, mild or moderate disease. Patients with comorbidities, classically considered high risk patients, presented the same pattern of disease.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.11560","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,4]],"date-time":"2021-06-04T04:57:44Z","timestamp":1622782664000},"page":"e11560","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Characteristics of the pediatric patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection in a Romanian children\u2019s hospital: a retrospective study"],"prefix":"10.7717","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Liana-C\u0103t\u0103lina","family":"Gavriliu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Carol Davila University of Medicine and Farmacy, Bucharest, Romania"},{"name":"\u201cMarie Curie\u201d Emergency Children\u2019s Hospital, Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carmen","family":"Murariu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"\u201cMarie Curie\u201d Emergency Children\u2019s Hospital, Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8571-2469","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Vladimir","family":"Potop","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Pitesti, Pitesti, Romania"},{"name":"State University of Physical Education and Sport, Chisinau, Moldova"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Radu","family":"Sp\u0103taru","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Carol Davila University of Medicine and Farmacy, Bucharest, Romania"},{"name":"\u201cMarie Curie\u201d Emergency Children\u2019s Hospital, Bucharest, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"4443","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,4]]},"reference":[{"issue":"5","key":"10.7717\/peerj.11560\/ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"323","DOI":"10.1016\/S2352-4642(21)00050-X","article-title":"Factors linked to severe outcomes in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) in the USA: a retrospective surveillance study","volume":"5","author":"Abrams","year":"2021","journal-title":"The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health"},{"key":"10.7717\/peerj.11560\/ref-2","article-title":"Children and COVID-19: state data report. 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