Primary Children’s Hospital Co-Leading National Youth Covid-19 Study

Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Dongngan Truong, of University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, consulting with a colleague. Photo: Courtesy of Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah. — In a press conference this morning, Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital announced it will embark on a five-year study of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a rare complication resulting from Covid-19. The study will be funded by the National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and will be co-led by Boston Children’s Hospital’s Dr. Jane Newburger.

Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Dongngan Truong, of the University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, explained that MIS-C is a severe illness found in organ systems such as the heart, lungs, blood, kidneys, or brain.

“For me, the study is really exciting and necessary because parents ask me all the time in the clinic and in the hospital, ‘What can we expect over time?’ or ‘How will my child do over time?’ or ‘How will my child’s heart be affected in the future?'” Truong said. “And unfortunately I don’t have a clear answer for them at this point and the data that we have are very limited right now. However, I hope that in the coming years we’ll have more answers for parents and my patients.”

There are many questions the study seeks to answer over time, such as why children who are Black or Latinx have been disproportionately affected, how to effectively diagnose, treat and manage MIS-C in children, and the long-term effects of complications on the body’s nervous, lung, gastrointestinal and other systems.

“We’ll analyze numerous factors from changes in a child’s heart function and rhythm to lingering symptoms like fatigue, and share data, like genetic clues about disease risk and outcomes, while using all of this information to create evidence-based treatment guidelines for MIS-C,” said Dr. Gail Pearson, a co-leader on the study and the associate director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

So far, Primary Children’s has treated more than 50 children with MIS-C, and it expects that number to increase. The study on ‘Long-Term Outcomes after the Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children,’ referred to as the ‘MUSIC’ study, will be conducted at 30 or more hospitals across the United States and in Canada. Roughly 600 children are expected to participate.

The full press conference with Dr. can be viewed below.