CASE REPORT article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Obesity
Case Report: MIS-C Precipitating DKA and Renal Failure in a Morbidly Obese Male with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Provisionally accepted
John Tumberger1,2*
Vincent Czerwinski1,2Francesca Pérez Marquès1,2
Travis Langner1,2
Hammad Ganatra1,2
Shawn Sood1,2- 1The University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, United States
- 2Division of Pediatric Critical Care, The University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, United States
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Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a recently described systemic inflammatory sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Diagnostic criteria for MIS-C includes age < 21, fever (>38°C), laboratory evidence of inflammation, clinically severe illness requiring hospitalization with multisystem (≥2) organ involvement, Evidence of current or recent SARS-CoV-2 infection or exposure, and has no alternative explanation for their symptoms1. We present a 15-year-old, morbidly obese male whose diagnosis of MIS-C was obfuscated by diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). This case highlights the increased risk of development of MIS-C in obese children, variability of presentation, and contributes to the body of research demonstrating endocrinologic complications of MIS-C.
Keywords: Obesity, DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis), MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children), T2D (type 2 diabetes), pediatric, Critical Care
Received: 18 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Tumberger, Czerwinski, Pérez Marquès, Langner, Ganatra and Sood. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: John Tumberger
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