Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of the MIS-C and control qPCR cohorts.

	MIS-C (n = 30)	Inflammatory controls (n = 19)	Healthy controls (n = 54)	KD (n = 8)	JSLE (n = 7)
Age (years)
Median	5.0	5.8	5.2	2.0	12.1
IQR (Q1; Q3)	7.0 (2.8; 9.8)	5.9 (4.0; 9.9)	7.0 (2.8; 9.8)	6.5 (0.7; 7.3)	0.5 (12.0; 12.5)
Sex
Male (%)	14 (46.7%)	15 (78.9%)	32 (59.3%)	4 (50.0%)	1 (14.3%)
Female (%)	16 (53.3%)	4 (21.1%)	22 (40.7%)	4 (50.0%)	6 (85.7%)
Ancestry
Black African (%)	19 (63.3%)	9 (47.4%)	18 (33.3%)	7 (87.5%)	2 (28.6%)
Cape Mixed (%)	10 (33.3%)	10 (52.6%)	36 (67.7%)	1 (12.5%)	5 (71.4%)
Not reported (%)	1 (3.3%)	0	0	0	0
Comorbidities
Obesity/overweight (%)	3 (10.0%)	1 (5.3%)	0	0	0
Bone disorder (%)	2 (6.7%)	0	0	0	0
Dermatological (%)	1 (3.3%)	0	0	0	0
Infectious (%)	1 (3.3%)	2 (10.5%)	0	1 (12.5%)	0
Developmental (%)	0	1 (5.3%)	0	1 (12.5%)	0
None/not reported (%)	23 (76.7%)	15 (78.9%)	54 (100.0%)	6 (75.0%)	7 (100.0%)
Epidemiological wave*
During or after first wave	21 (70.0%)	9 (47.4%)	34 (63.0%)	5 (62.5%)	1 (14.3%)
During or after second wave	7 (23.3%)	8 (42.1%)	19 (35.2%)	0	4 (57.1%)
During third wave	2 (6.7%)	2 (10.5%)	1 (1.8%)	3 (37.5%)	2 (28.6%)

*Epidemiological waves defined as per South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases criteria for the Western Cape province of South Africa.

KD, Kawasaki disease; JSLE, juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus; IQR, interquartile range; MIS-C, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.