First COVID-19, then Kawasaki-like Disease in Children

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In this week’s news roundup from Rheumatology Network, we begin by highlighting two reports on osteoporosis.

In one, doctors reporting in JAMA say that osteoporosis screening may be necessary for younger postmenopausal women. We published a Q&A with Dr. Carolyn Crandall of UCLA who discusses the need to conduct osteoporosis screening in this population.

And, we featured a discussion with Dr. Suzanne Jan de Beur of Johns Hopkins University who explains that managing vitamin D levels may not be as straightforward as it would seem. There are factors that should be considered that are not often communicated to patients. We’ve posed an audio version of our discussion with Dr. Jan de Beur on rheumatologynetwork.com

And, this week we highlight two reports on COVID-19. In one, researchers writing in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases report that high doses of methylprednisolone with tocilizumab if needed, successfully resolved COVID-19 associated cytokine storm syndrome in most treated patients. You can learn more about those findings on rheumatologynetwork.com.

In today’s one-on-one interview, we feature a discussion with Jagadeesh Bayry, Ph.D., and Caroline Galeotti, M.D., of the University of Paris who recently described in Nature Reviews Rheumatology, pediatric cases of COVID-19 that were associated with the development of pediatric inflammatory multisystemic syndrome, or, PIMS in children. Children who developed PIMS exhibited signs of the vasculitis syndrome Kawasaki disease without having the disease itself. The condition eventually resolved in most of their patients. And, while the pandemic is under control in Paris, cases are still rising in most U.S. cities that may begin to see vasculitis symptoms in children described in this report.

"The current COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to many surprises, including the appearance of PIMS, with clinical and biochemical features distinct from that of classical Kawasaki disease and affecting children up to 17 years old. Although only a small proportion of SARS-CoV-2-infected children subsequently develop symptoms of PIMS (or MIS-C), most of them require intense clinical management because of the severity of the disease. As fundamental aspects of PIMS remain largely unknown, future investigations will require close interaction among various disciplines including paediatrics, internal medicine, rheumatology, immunology, genetics, infectiology, cardiology and epidemiology.," they wrote in the article.

Click on the video to learn to learn more about this COVID-19-related condition in children.

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REFERENCE

Caroline Galeotti & Jagadeesh Bayry. "Autoimmune and inflammatory diseases following COVID-19," Nature Reviews Rheumatology. News & Views | 04 June 2020.