Advice to Primary Care Providers: Recognizing MIS-C

In the final part of their interview with HCPLive®, Dongngan Truong, MD, University of Utah Health and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, and Jane Newburger, MD, Boston Children’s Hospital, spoke on the importance for primary care providers to recognize multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and related symptoms.

“One of the most important things about MIS-C is recognition,” said Truong. “Obviously, given the overlap of symptoms of MIS-C with other things, the differential or what doctors think about might be causing symptoms has to be broad.”

Nevertheless, she encouraged providers to be cognizant of the possibly, especially in children who have previous been diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

She underscored the important role of close follow-up, utilizing the right labs during the diagnosis process, and understanding when to seek referral to a center that can offer proper treatment and care.

“For a busy pediatric practice with kids who are sick and have fever, this can be a needle in a haystack,” Newburger acknowledged. “But it really makes a difference to get somebody to care quickly.”

Part of the recognition process, of course, is staying informed with the definitions of MIS-C, which include knowing the symptoms and presentations typically associated with the condition.

As time and research will hopefully tell, the long-term outcomes of the newly discovered syndrome and at-risk subpopulations will become better understood.