On the pathogenesis of post-COVID functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract in children

Despite the end of the pandemic, today more than 1000 different genetic lines of the Sars-Cov-2 virus continue to play an epidemiological role in the circulation of the infection. The severity of the disease with the strains circulating today has significantly decreased, but the prevention of the so-called post-COVID syndrome, a symptom complex that includes a variety of symptoms that often persist for weeks, months and even years after the acute period of the disease, has become especially relevant. It is noted that in the post-COVID period, the frequency of gastrointestinal manifestations increases in adults and children. In adults, the presence of gastrointestinal manifestations of COVID-19 during and after the disease is associated with a malfunction of the intestinal microbiota-lung axis. The pathogenesis of gastrointestinal symptoms in the post-COVID period in children is poorly understood. Objective: Based on clinical, anamnestic, molecular biological and immunological methods, to identify the main pathogenetic mechanisms for the development of gastrointestinal symptoms in the post-COVID period in children. Materials and methods. Calculation of risk factors for the development of gastrointestinal symptoms after coronavirus infection in children and analysis of pathogenetic mechanisms for the development of these symptoms in the post-COVID period were carried out using a neural network. A combined method of global optimization, random search, inertial and genetic algorithms was used. The structure of the neural network included an input layer of 7 neurons, 2 hidden layers of 10 and 9 neurons, and an output layer of one neuron. Results. Using a neural network, 5 signs accompanying the presence of post-COVID gastrointestinal symptoms in children a month after recovery from a new coronavirus infection were identified.