Most children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome related to COVID-19 exhibit normalization of cardiac function by 3 months; however, longer term follow-up is still required, suggests a retrospective longitudinal cohort study.

Investigators evaluated cardiac outcomes among 60 patients, 18 years or below, admitted to two Philadelphia hospitals with MIS-C from April 2020 through January 2021. Their outcomes were compared with those of 60 age-matched healthy children who underwent echocardiography for several non-COVID-related conditions. Around 81% of patients who presented with myocardial injury had lost the left atrial contraction phase. This declined to 51% during the subacute phase, and to 30% at 1 month. By 3-4 months, all patients were found to have normal left atrial contraction phase.

At 1 month following admission, all MIS-C patients were noted to have significant signs of cardiac strain, in comparison with controls, such as changes to global longitudinal strain, global circumferential strain, circumferential early diastolic strain rate, and right ventricular free wall longitudinal strain. All strain parameters normalized, compared to controls, by 3 months.

The findings are published in the Journal of the American Heart Association… (Medscape)