Long-term follow-up of children who received rapid genomic sequencing

Purpose

To explore long-term trajectories of children who received rapid genome sequencing (RGS) in intensive care settings.

Methods

We examined the electronic health records of 67 critically ill pediatric patients who received RGS 6 to 8 years ago with a collective initial diagnostic yield of 46%.

Results

The median length of follow-up was 6.2 years (interquartile range 4.0-7.2 years). RGS-diagnosed patients had a longer average follow-up time compared with undiagnosed patients (5.9 years vs 4.8 years, P = .026) and more subspecialty appointments per follow-up year (9.4 vs 6.9, P = .036). Mortality during the follow-up period was 9%. Patients averaged 2.1 hospital readmissions per follow-up year and 28.1 hospitalized days per follow-up year. Forty-four patients (66%) had a documented new phenotype in the electronic health records during their follow-up period. Seven patients received clinician-driven reanalysis during the follow-up period, yielding 1 new diagnosis. Systematic reanalysis of RGS performed as part of this study identified 4 new candidate diagnoses.

Conclusion

Pediatric patients who receive RGS during intensive care unit hospitalizations continue to be high health care utilizers in subsequent years, regardless of whether RGS identified a diagnosis. Additionally, two-thirds of this cohort had a documented phenotypic change over the follow-up period, indicating dynamic clinical evolution in the years after RGS.