Hackensack Meridian Childrens Health Pediatrician Contributes to Study on Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children MISC and COVID19

Hackensack Meridian Children’s Health pediatrician Katharine N. Clouser, MD, contributed to a study comparing outcomes of children and adolescents with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and severe COVID-19. The study, titled “Characteristics and Outcomes of US Children and Adolescents with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) Compared with Severe Acute COVID-19,” was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). 

Dr. Clouser is a pediatric hospitalist at Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital at Hackensack University Medical Center, the co-director of the Pediatric COVID-19 Recovery Center, as well as  an assistant professor at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. 

About the Study

In the study published in JAMA, researchers wanted to refine the criteria for MIS-C to differentiate between MIS-C and COVID-19 as part of an effort to improve health outcomes. The study, which included 539 patients with MIS-C and 577 patients with severe COVID-19 from 66 hospitals in 31 

U.S. states, found that patients with MIS-C were more likely than those with severe COVID-19 to be 6 to 12 years old, be non-Hispanic Black, and have severe cardiovascular or mucous membrane/skin involvement and more extreme inflammation. 

Patients with MIS-C had fever, inflammation, multisystem involvement and either positive reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test or antibody test results, or recent exposure to COVID-19 with no alternate diagnosis. Patients with COVID-19 had a positive RT-PCR test and severe organ system involvement.