Magalhães Tiago, Granado Maria Cristina, Manuel Ana Rute, Espinheira Maria do Céu, Trindade Eunice
Pediatrics Department, Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João, Porto, Portugal.
Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
GE Port J Gastroenterol. 2022 Mar 9;20(2):1-6. doi: 10.1159/000522073.
Acute COVID-19 in pediatric and young adult patients tends to be milder in severity compared to adult infection. Recent studies seem to show that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients are at no greater risk than the general population. We aim to describe our experience in the follow-up of pediatric and young adult patients with IBD followed in our center and determine possible risk factors of said population for severe COVID-19.
We performed a retrospective study of all patients aged under 25 years followed for IBD at the Unit of Pediatric Gastroenterology in a tertiary center between December 2019 and April 2021 evaluating the incidence of COVID-19 and characterization of positive cases.
Of the 268 participants, 24 had COVID-19: the mean age was 19 years old and gender had an equal distribution; 75% ( = 18) had Crohn's disease, whereas only 25% ( = 6) had ulcerative colitis. Most patients were in clinical remission ( = 21). The majority of patients were under treatment with a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonist (58%, = 14), mainly infliximab, and most had no comorbidities other than IBD (83%). Regarding COVID-19, 17% of the patients were asymptomatic while the rest had only mild symptoms. There were no reported gastrointestinal complaints, no complications nor hospitalizations. Most patients did not require interruption of their IBD treatment.
Our data suggest that pediatric and young adult IBD patients have a low risk for complications and hospitalization, regardless of IBD treatment. We believe that this experience is encouraging and allows for safe counseling regarding treatment options and school attendance in pediatric and young adult IBD patients.
与成人感染相比，儿童和青年成人患者的急性新冠病毒病（COVID-19）严重程度往往较轻。最近的研究似乎表明，炎症性肠病（IBD）患者感染风险并不高于普通人群。我们旨在描述在我们中心随访的儿童和青年成人IBD患者的情况，并确定该人群发生重症COVID-19的可能风险因素。
我们对2019年12月至2021年4月在一家三级中心的儿科胃肠病科接受IBD随访的所有25岁以下患者进行了一项回顾性研究，评估COVID-19的发病率及阳性病例特征。
在268名参与者中，24人感染了COVID-19：平均年龄为19岁，性别分布均衡；75%（n = 18）患有克罗恩病，而只有25%（n = 6）患有溃疡性结肠炎。大多数患者处于临床缓解期（n = 21）。大多数患者正在接受肿瘤坏死因子（TNF）拮抗剂治疗（占58%；n = 14），主要是英夫利昔单抗，并且除IBD外大多数患者无其他合并症（占83%）。关于COVID-19，17%的患者无症状，其余患者仅有轻微症状。未报告有胃肠道不适、并发症或住院情况。大多数患者无需中断IBD治疗。
我们的数据表明，无论是否接受IBD治疗，儿童和青年成人IBD患者发生并发症和住院的风险较低。我们认为这一经验令人鼓舞，有助于就儿童和青年成人IBD患者的治疗选择及上学问题提供安全的咨询建议。
