Study participants
We included 17 pediatric patients with PASC (further referred as PASC)
and 13 convalescent COVID-19 pediatric subjects without PASC symptomatic
(further referred as control) treated in the Pediatric Infectious
Diseases, Outpatient Clinic at the Department of Pediatrics I,
University Hospital Essen from April 2021 to December 2021. Seventeen
patients, who met the criteria of long COVID according to the German
Association of the Scientific Medical Societies (AWMF) and NICE
guidelines (18,19) were recruited as PASC cohort. Patients with at least
two symptoms, which could not be explained by an alternative diagnosis
were included. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the
University Hospital Essen (21-9998_1-KOBO & 22-10581-BO). Written
informed consent was obtained from all participants/caretakers.
Demographic and clinical characteristics are provided in tables 1 and 2.