Chemical laboratory findings in children with covid-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Few studies have been performed on the clinical manifestations of COVID-19 in children, and the clinical and laboratory features of children with COVID-19 are challenging, and insufficient evidence has been provided. Therefore, the current study focused on the most prevalent laboratory data in children with COVID-19. In the current study, articles published from January 2019 to December 2021 were reviewed in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and EBSCO databases. For data analysis, after extracting the data of studies that met the inclusion criteria, the effect size was used with a 95% confidence interval; the fixed or random effect model and the Mantel-Haenszel/REML formula were calculated. Stata software version 16, a faster version of Stata, was used for statistical analysis. A total of 291 articles were found within the starting search, the full text of 52 article were reviewed. Finally, six studies were selected. Most prevalent laboratory findings were 39% decreased White blood cells (95% CI 8%-70%); 36% decreased Lymphocyte (95% CI 5%-67%); 56% increased IL-6 (95% CI 31%-82%); 66% increased Aspartate aminotransferase (95% CI 48%-83%); 49% increased Alanine aminotransferase (95% CI 29%-69%). Current meta-analysis showed in children with COVID-19, the interpretation of laboratory findings is very important and should be given more attention. Early detection of the disease in children can be essential in controlling the COVID19 epidemic, so early detection of important laboratory findings and their increase or decrease can be helpful in early diagnosis.