{"doi":"10.14806/ej.26.1.946","title":"COVID-19 features in children and adolescents: a systematic review and pooled analysis","abstract":"The purpose of the present study was to evaluate special features and probable correlations between symptoms, laboratory findings, treatment, and outcomes of COVID-19 in children and adolescents, through a systematic review and pooled analysis. Following database (Pubmed, Google Scholar, Scopus and Embase) search, forty articles were considered eligible identifying a total of 2,971 confirmed pediatric COVID-19 patients. Fever was reported in 55.1% of the cases, while 28.4% were asymptomatic. Radiological signs of pneumonia were observed in more than half of the cases and in 40.7% of asymptomatic patients. Fever showed the highest sensitivity (sensitivity: 60.3%, specificity: 48.8%), followed by cough (sensitivity: 47.4%, specificity: 76.7%), rhinorrhea (sensitivity: 21.1%, specificity: 88.4%) and diarrhea (sensitivity: 10.3%, specificity: 88.4%), in differentiating cases with positive radiological signs for pneumonia. Compared to school age children, preschoolers (adjusted OR=6.01, 95%CI: 1.73-20.91) were more prone to pneumonia findings. Various combinations of treatments were used across studies, without following any strict guidelines. Most children (>90%) had full recovery and rarely presented complications. Fever seems to be the most frequent symptom in pediatric COVID-19, but pediatricians should additionally evaluate cough, rhinorrhea, and diarrhea as indicators of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Asymptomatic cases were common, but not the majority, and a significant percentage had developed radiologic findings of pneumonia. Thorough reassessment of treatment and management guidelines should be helpful.","journal":"EMBnet journal","year":2021,"id":209089,"datarank":0.31230877685611524,"base_score":1.791759469228055,"endowment":1.791759469228055,"self_citation_contribution":0.26876392038420827,"citation_network_contribution":0.04354485647190697,"self_endowment_contribution":0.26876392038420827,"citer_contribution":0.04354485647190697,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":5,"citer_count":4,"citers_with_citation_signal":2,"citers_with_endowment":2,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9136,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":796734,"name":"Athanasios Thirios","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":792053,"name":"Θεοδώρα Ψαλτοπούλου","orcid":"0000-0002-1404-9716","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":449303,"name":"Flora Bacopoulou","orcid":"0000-0003-1001-0926","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":796283,"name":"Theodore Troupis","orcid":"0000-0003-3676-4486","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":42028,"name":"George P. Chrousos","orcid":"0000-0002-3098-5264","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":792056,"name":"Μαρία Τσολιά","orcid":"0000-0003-2485-4409","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":336803,"name":"Theodoros Ν. Sergentanis","orcid":"0000-0002-9355-5528","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":675589,"name":"Άρτεμις Τσίτσικα","orcid":"0000-0002-8436-640X","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":792052,"name":"Eleni Panagouli","orcid":"0000-0002-8764-1059","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":64,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:52:01.526969Z","pmid":"35600316","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}