Impact of Hyponatremia and ADH Secretion in MIS-C and COVID-19: An Integrative Approach of Prognostic and Diagnostic Markers

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced challenges in pediatric care, especially due to the emergence of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a severe condition associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. This study investigated the impact of hyponatremia and antidiuretic hormone (ADH) secretion corelated to clinical outcomes in these patients. We conducted a retrospective cohort study, including 118 pediatric patients, with a detailed sub-cohort analysis of 53 patients for ADH secretion markers. Hyponatremia, defined by age-specific sodium thresholds, was present in 47.22% of MIS-C cases and 28.04% of COVID-19 cases. Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that severe hyponatremia significantly increased the likelihood of more severe clinical outcomes (β = 3.514, p < 0.001). A significant correlation was found between hyponatremia and prolonged hospitalization. For ADH secretion, a predictive model using ridge regression was analysed, which demonstrated that serum sodium level, U/P ratio, and hospitalization duration are key predictors of SIADH. This model fit was assessed using the ROC curve with an AUC of 0.96, indicating reliable model performance. Our findings underscore the significant role of hyponatremia on the clinical severity and hospitalization outcome of COVID-19 and MIS-C in pediatric patients.