TY  - JOUR
TI  - Patients Without a Rheumatic Disease Diagnosis in a Pediatric Rheumatology Unit: Retrospective Analysis and Comparison Between Pre-pandemic and Pandemic Periods
AB  - Objective: Children with suspicious complaints of rheumatic diseases are generally referred to a pediatric rheumatologist. We aimed to evaluate the profile of patients referred to the pedi- atric rheumatology unit and were not diagnosed with a rheumatic disease and to assess the impact of the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic on referral complaints. Materials and Methods: All new outpatients who applied to the pediatric rheumatology depart- ment between March 2019 and February 2021 and were not diagnosed with rheumatic disease were included. We also compared the frequency of admission symptoms during the pre-pan- demic (March 2019-February 2020) and pandemic periods (March 2020-February 2021). Results: A total of 1089 patients without a rheumatic disease diagnosis (568 female, 52.2%; median age 10.0 years) were included in this study. The most common complaint for refer- ral was prolonged or recurrent fevers (13.4%) followed by anti-nuclear antibody positivity (13.1%), arthralgia (13.0%), skin findings (7.5%), and the presence of heterozygous mutations in the Mediterranean fever gene (6.9%). During the pandemic year, the number of patients referred for back pain increased significantly (P = .028). A total of 682 of 1089 patients were consulted from other departments in our center (62.6%). Of these, the most frequent consulta- tion request was from general pediatrics (43.6%). The rheumatic disease was excluded in 11.3% of the patients. Conclusion: Prolonged or recurrent fever and anti-nuclear antibody positivity were the most frequent complaints of referrals to a pediatric rheumatology unit in patients who did not have a rheumatic disease. The rate of back pain was more common in children during the pandemic period.
AU  - Batu, Ezgi Deniz
AU  - Şener, Seher
AU  - balık, zeynep
AU  - KASAP CUCEOGLU, MUSERREF
AU  - Aliyev, Emil
AU  - Kaya Akca, Ümmüşen
AU  - BAYINDIR, YAGMUR
AU  - Tanalı, Gizem
AU  - Ozen, Seza
AU  - Bilginer, Yelda
AU  - BAŞARAN, özge
AU  - Atalay, ERDAL
DO  - 10.5152/TurkArchPediatr.2022.22192
PY  - 2023
JO  - Turkish archives of pediatrics (Online)
VL  - 58
IS  - 1
SN  - 2757-6256
SP  - 49
EP  - 55
DB  - TRDizin
UR  - http://search/yayin/detay/1172327
ER  -