Introduction
Long-term sequelae following coronavirus 2019 infection (COVID-19) have been extensively described in adult population. Diagnosis of post-COVID syndrome is mainly reserved for clinical features persisting more than twelve weeks after an acute COVID-19 and not explained by an alternative diagnosis. About 10% of adults in an ambulatory setting and about 70% of previously hospitalized people reported miscellaneous general or more specified symptoms three months after COVID-19 onset. These included fatigue, fever, pain, or neurological, respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, dermatologic, musculoskeletal, and other organ symptoms. Although meta-analyses confirmed lower incidence and severity of acute pediatric COVID-19, great attention is devoted to severe complications following infection in a pediatric population known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), so-called pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS). Syndrome develops within four weeks after COVID 19 exposure and is associated with a high risk of multiorgan failure, especially with severe cardiac involvement [6]. Pediatric post-COVID syndrome represents different diagnosis focused on long-lasting symptoms. Only limited data regarding incidence, clinical picture, diagnosis, therapy, or prognosis of pediatric post-COVID are available. Recently, several case series recruited from random parental contact of physician by internet web social media forum, survey from patients of pediatric departments,cohorts of randomly selected school classes with population-based seronegative control group single center cohort examined by phone call and outpatient assessment and prospective cohort study based on self-data reporting by a mobile application were published.
The objective of our study was to explore clinical picture, severity, and prognosis of post-COVID syndrome in children with a dominant focus on the respiratory system. Children were referred and followed up by the national network of Czech pediatric pulmonologists. Additionally, we suggested and tested a panel of screening tests for diagnosis and evaluation of structural and functional anomalies of the respiratory tract in pediatric post-COVID.