BackgroundClinicians lack objective tests to help determine the severity of bronchiolitis or to distinguish a viral from bacterial causes of respiratory distress. We hypothesized that children with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection would have a different metabolomic profile compared to those with bacterial infection or healthy controls, and this might also vary with bronchiolitis severity.MethodsClinical information and urine-based metabolomic data were collected from healthy age-matched children (n = 37) and those admitted to hospital with a proven infection (RSV n = 55; Non-RSV viral n = 16; bacterial n = 24). Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measured 86 metabolites per urine sample. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was performed to create models of separation.ResultsUsing a combination of metabolites, a strong PLS-DA model (R2 = 0.86, Q2 = 0.76) was created differentiating healthy children from those with RSV infection. This model had over 90 % accuracy in classifying blinded infants with similar illness severity. Two other models differentiated length of hospitalization and viral versus bacterial infection.ConclusionWhile the sample sizes remain small, this is the first report suggesting that metabolomic analysis of urine samples has the potential to become a diagnostic aid. Future studies with larger sample sizes are required to validate the utility of metabolomics in pediatric patients with respiratory distress.

Neurological manifestations, such as encephalopathy, intracranial neuropathy, headache, and cognitive decline, are often presented in patients with COVID-19 infection. Since the onset of the pandemic, acute ischemic stroke associated with a hypercoagulable state caused by COVID-19 is increasingly being reported. Hemorrhagic stroke is also reported via poorly understood mechanisms. We report one of the first-ever cases of intraparenchymal hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage secondary to reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome in a patient with COVID-19 infection.

Moyamoya syndrome is a chronic and progressive narrowing of the arteries in the brain caused by different mechanisms than the genetic mutation that leads to moyamoya disease. It is characterized by the narrowing and/or closing of the carotid artery with a collateral circulation development around the blocked vessels to compensate for the ischemia. In this report, we present a unique case of moyamoya syndrome that developed over the course of a few months in a patient with new-onset strokes and seizures in the setting of late diagnosis of neurosyphilis and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). To our knowledge, moyamoya syndrome secondary to coinfection with AIDS and meningovascular neurosyphilis has only been reported once in the literature.

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