Patients and methods
We surveyed all 43 Spanish institutions treating pediatric cases (1 month - 18 years of age), with solid and hematologic malignancies, non-malignant hematologic conditions (those receiving immunosuppressive treatment or bone marrow failure syndrome) and after allogeneic-stem cell transplantation, or CAR-T cell therapy who were diagnosed with COVID-19 from the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on January 31 to April 24, 2020. This is a collaborative SEHOP initiative. Demographic and clinical data were collected from medical records.
This study was approved by the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Research Ethical Committee.
Definitions: Symptoms severity was classified using the WHO criteria10: Asymptomatic infection, mild-moderate (presence of fever, symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection, pneumonia without the need for respiratory support), severe (dyspnea, tachypnea, blood oxygen saturation ≤93%), critical (respiratory failure, septic shock, and / or multiple organ dysfunction / failure). Pneumonia was diagnosed in those cases with lung field infiltrates identified in chest imaging and was considered bilateral when > 1 lobe on each lung were affected.
Statistical Analysis : Qualitative variables were described using absolute frequencies and percentages. Quantitative variables that can be assumed to be normally distributed were described using mean and standard deviation, whereas non-normal quantitative variables were described using the median. To compare quantitative variables among groups we used the Mann-Whitney test. All the analyses were performed using R version 3.6.2.