Renal Involvement in Pediatric Patients with COVID-19: An Up-to-date Review.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

In pediatric patients, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has been mostly associated with mild symptoms. However, as in adults, renal involvement has been reported in children and adolescents with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

OBJECTIVE:

This review aimed to report data about renal involvement in pediatric COVID-19 patients. The focuses were on the pathophysiology of acute kidney injury in Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally Associated (PIMS-TS) with SARS-CoV-2 and the possible impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection upon kidney function, as well as data concerning patients with previous kidney diseases, including Nephrotic Syndrome and Chronic Renal Disease. The implications for COVID-19 outcomes in pediatric patients were also discussed.

METHODS:

This integrative review searched for articles on renal involvement in pediatric COVID-19 patients. The databases evaluated were PubMed and Scopus.

RESULTS:

The emergence of PIMS-TS with SARS-CoV-2 has shown that pediatric patients are at risk of severe COVID-19, with multi-organ involvement and dysfunction. In addition to intense inflammation, several systems are affected in this syndrome, collectively creating a combination of factors that results in acute kidney injury. Several studies have proposed that kidney cells, including the podocytes, might be at risk of direct infection by SARS-CoV-2, as high levels of ACE2, the virus receptor, are expressed on the membrane of such cells. Some cases of glomerular diseases triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection and relapses of previous renal diseases have been reported.

CONCLUSION:

Further studies are necessary to establish risk factors for renal involvement in pediatric COVID-19 and to predict disease outcomes.

• Authors: Yuri Márcio Campos, André Luís Vieira Drumond, Mariane de Matos Gamonal, Milena Pereira Parreira, Ana Cristina Simões E Silva
• Journal: Current pediatric reviews (Curr Pediatr Rev) Vol. 17 Issue 4 Pg. 253-263 ( 2021) ISSN: 1875-6336 [Electronic] United Arab Emirates
• PMID: 34561986 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)
• Copyright: Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at [email protected].

Topics

• Adolescent
• COVID-19 (complications)
• Child
• Humans
• SARS-CoV-2
• Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome