VIRTUALLY all children infected with Covid suffer from serious blood vessel damage, scientists have warned.
The US study found a “high proportion” of kids with the bug had elevated levels of a biomarker tied to this type of cardiovascular injury.
A “high proportion” of kids with Covid suffer from blood vessel damage
And this was even the case for those who didn’t get very ill from the infection.
Dr David Teachey, from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said: “Although most children with Covid-19 do not have severe disease, our study shows that there may be other effects of SARS-CoV-2 that are worthy of investigation.”
Blood vessels are channels that carry essential nutrients, like oxygen, to all the organs in the body. They also carry waste products away.
Damaged blood vessels can cause blood clots, ‘leaky’ vessels and reduced blood flow, according to the British Heart Foundation.
In the brain, damage to vessels could lead to inflammation. And in the limbs, reduced blood flow could lead to ‘Covid toe’, it added.
The rare toe condition can anyone of any age, although reports suggest children and teens suffer more that adults.
It can present as red, inflamed toes sometimes with a rash.
The researchers also found many children with the bug test positive of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) – a rare but serious medical disease.
TMA leads to clots in small blood vessels and has been linked to severe Covid symptoms among adult patients.
Dr David, added: “We should continue testing for and monitoring children with SARS-CoV-2 so that we can better understand how the virus affects them in both the short and long term.”
The study, published in the Blood Advances, looked at how children’s cardiovascular health was impacted by the virus.
Researchers analysed the health data of 50 paediatric patients hospitalised with the bug between April and July 2020.
Among the group, 21 showed minimal to no symptoms, 11 experienced severe symptoms, and 18 developed serious complications.
Elevated biomarkers for blood-vessel damage were found in all patients.
While 86 per cent of children met the medical criteria for TMA.