The MUSIC Study: Evaluating Long-Term Outcomes of MIS-C

Cardiac involvement—including ventricular dysfunction, coronary artery dilation and aneurysms, among others—has been a key feature in many cases of multisystem inflammatory children in children (MIS-C).

Although most patients recover within days or weeks, long-term outcomes are currently unknown.

The Long-Term Outcomes after the Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MUSIC) study will be the first of such trials to examine the effects of MIS-C on the coronary anatomy as well as ventricular function over time. The study will also observe the long-term effects of the newly discovered syndrome on the nervous, lung, immune, and gastrointestinal systems.

Co-led by pediatric cardiologists Dongngan Truong, MD, University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, and Jane Newburger, MD, Boston Children’s Hospital, the 5-year longitudinal study is currently enrolling around 600 patients who have been diagnosed with MIS-C and recovered as well as those who will develop MIS-C over the next 2 years.

The investigators will analyze potential risk factors through assessment of changes in heart function and genetic clues, among many other tasks.

An ultimate goal for the study is to discover and provide critical information to pediatricians and relevant parties so as optimize treatment and care for these patients.

“It can serve as a scaffold for other studies,” Newburger said to HCPLive® in an interview. “If they’re rheumatologists, or neurologists, or other specialists who want to look in much greater depth with testing, they can build on the framework of this study if they would like to.”