Fatal thrombotic microangiopathy in an infant with COVID-19: a case report.

BACKGROUND: While macrovascular thrombosis is common in adult COVID-19 patients, thrombotic microangiopathy as a part of endothelitis might play an important role in severe organ dysfunction. Thrombocytopenia-associated multiple organ failure (TAMOF) is a thrombotic microangiopathy syndrome that is associated with endothelial damage. Herein, we aim to report a pediatric TAMOF case related to SARS-CoV-2 infection which has been scarcely reported to date. CASE: A 7-month-old boy who became severely ill after being infected with SARS-CoV-2 required advanced critical care treatments such as continuous renal replacement therapy, therapeutic plasma exchange, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. A heart and lung biopsy obtained during sternotomy showed thrombotic microangiopathy. Despite early plasma exchange, mortality was inevitable because of severe liver failure. CONCLUSIONS: This case report implies that SARS-CoV-2 infection could cause TAMOF in children. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second SARS-CoV-2-induced pediatric TAMOF case. More studies are needed to determine alternative treatments for patients with TAMOF who are resistant to conventional therapies.

Optic nerve sheath diameter and pulsatility index for the diagnosis and follow-up in pediatric traumatic brain injury: a prospective observational cohort study.

PURPOSE: Invasive neuromonitoring could be difficult in children with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study aimed to determine whether noninvasive intracranial pressure (nICP), calculated via pulsatility index (PI) and optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) had correlated with each other and patient outcome. METHODS: All moderate-severe TBI patients were eligible. Patients with a diagnosis of intoxication that did not affect the mental status or cardiovascular system were enrolled as controls. The PI measurements were routinely performed bilaterally on the middle cerebral artery. A software (QLAB's Q-Apps) was used to calculate PI, which further placed the ICP equation of Bellner et al. Linear probe with a 10 MHz frequency transducer to measure ONSD, which further placed the ICP equation of Robba et al. All measurements were performed by a point-of-care ultrasound certified pediatric intensivist under the supervision of a neurocritical care specialist, before and 30 min after a hypertonic saline (HTS) infusion for every 6 h when the patient's mean arterial pressure, heart rate, body temperature, hemoglobin, and blood CO2 levels were within normal ranges. The secondary outcome was the effect of hypertonic saline (HTS) on nICP. Delta-sodium values of each HTS infusion were calculated as a difference between pre- and post-measurements. RESULTS: Twenty-five TBI patients (200 measurements) and 19 controls (57 measurements) were included. Median nICP-PI and nICP-ONSD on admission were significantly higher in the TBI group (11.03 (9.98-12.63), p = 0.004, and 13.14 (12.27-14.64), p < 0.001, respectively). Median nICP-ONSD of severe TBI patients were higher than moderate TBI patients (13.58 (13.14-15.71) and 12.30 (9.83-13.14), respectively, p = 0.013). The median nICP-PI was the same across the type of injury (falls and motor vehicle accidents), while the median nICP-ONSD of the motor vehicle accident group was higher than falls. The first nICP-PI and nICP-ONSD measurements in PICU and admission pGCS were negatively correlated (r = - 0.562, p = 0.003 and r = - 0.582, p = 0.002, respectively). The mean nICP-ONSD during the study period and admission pGCS and GOS-E peds score significantly correlated. However, the Bland-Altman plots showed significant bias between the two methods of ICP except after 5th dose of HTS. All nICP values significantly decreased in time, and it was most obvious after the 5th dose of HTS. No significant correlations were found between delta sodium levels and nICP. CONCLUSION: Noninvasive estimation of ICP is helpful for the management of pediatric severe TBI patients. nICP driven by ONSD is more consistent with clinical findings of increased ICP but not useful as a follow-up tool in acute management because of slow circulation of CSF around the optic sheath. The correlation between admission GCS scores and GOS-E peds score favors ONSD as a good candidate for determining disease severity and predicting long-term outcomes.

Apnea Test on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: Step Forward with Carbon Dioxide.

Apnea test must be performed to confirm brain death in patients meet clinical criteria. But the increment of carbon dioxide is generally not achievable because of the diminished production of carbon dioxide and additional sweep in extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). We report three children with congenital heart disease treated with ECMO and had brain death during follow-up. All met clinical criteria but apnea test cannot be achieved in classical way because of prolonged duration and hemodynamic compromise. Therefore, we used external carbon dioxide to achieve desired levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide safely. Because of the lack of protocols for pediatric patients on ECMO, apnea test with exogenous carbon dioxide may be a reliable and rapid test in such patients. Especially cardiac patients, in whom classical apnea test can cause rapid deterioration, exogenous carbon dioxide may serve as an alternative.

Neurologic manifestations in children with COVID-19 from a tertiary center in Turkey and literature review.

BACKGROUND: Since December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic caused by highly transmissible severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Although respiratory disease and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) are main clinical presentations in children, numerous neurological manifestations are being described increasingly. We aimed to investigate new onset neurological symptoms associated with SARS-CoV-2 in pediatric patients in order to establish a possible relationship as well as to understand the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms between SARS-CoV-2 infection and neurological findings. METHODS: We analyzed retrospectively children who had neurologic manifestations temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection at Hacettepe University Ihsan Dogramaci Children's Hospital. We performed a literature search between March 20, 2020 and March 30, 2021. Articles that report children with COVID-19 related neurological manifestations were included. RESULTS: We have observed 15 consecutive cases with new onset neurological manifestations along with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Age at hospitalization ranged from three months to 17 years. Ten patients had central nervous system involvement, and most common manifestation was encephalopathy (5/10), which is also one of the most common manifestations of the patients mentioned in the relevant 39 articles we reviewed. CONCLUSION: Children with COVID-19 can present with neurologic findings such as encephalopathy, seizures, cerebrovascular events as well as abnormal eye movements. Clinical suspicion and awareness are required to show the association between neurologic manifestations and COVID-19.

Anaphylactic shock following minor abdominal trauma as the initial presentation of Echinococcus cyst: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Anaphylaxis is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by a variety of triggers. However, anaphylaxis following an abdominal trauma is an exceptionally rare condition and could be the first and only sign of hepatic hydatid cyst, especially when no obvious etiology is present. Here, we present such a rare case and discuss relevant diagnostic and management strategy in light of the literature. CASE REPORT: This case report refers to a 17 year-old previously healthy girl admitted in our pediatric emergency department (ED) for syncope after a minor blunt abdominal trauma. She was hypotensive on admission and shortly after she developed urticaria and angioedema. She was diagnosed with anaphylaxis and treated immediately. Possible etiologies including drug or food ingestion, insect bite, and previous allergy/anaphylaxis history were excluded. After stabilization abdominal imaging was performed, which revealed a ruptured large hepatic hydatid cyst in the vicinity of biliary tree. Albendazole treatment was started and surgical resection was performed after clinical stabilization, which confirmed the cyst rupture into the biliary ducts. Patient recovered without complications after surgery and was discharged uneventfully. CONCLUSION: This case report highlights that hydatid cyst rupture should be included in the differential diagnosis of anaphylaxis without obvious etiology, particularly in regions where hydatid disease is endemic. Ruptured hydatid cyst leading to anaphylaxis requires timely diagnosis, management and emergent intervention.