What is Kawasaki disease?
Kawasaki disease is an illness that causes inflammation of the blood vessels
in the whole body. While its symptoms can mimic many infectious and
non-infectious diseases, such as scarlet fever, toxic shock syndrome and
measels, it was first recognized as a separate illness in 1967 by Dr. Tomisaku
Kawasaki, a Japanese pediatrician. Characterized by the following symptoms:
fever; rash; swelling of the hands and feet; redness of the whites of the eyes;
irritation and infammation of the lips, mouth and throat and swollen lymph nodes
in the neck; the immediate effects of the disease are rarely serious, however in
some cases long-term heart complications may result.
Who gets Kawasaki disease?
Kawasaki disease is not a rare illness, with about 3,500 reported cases per
year in the United States and over 8,000 per year in Japan. The disease occurs
most commonly among children of Asian ancestry, but it affects children of all
racial and ethnic groups.
In recent years the disease has sometimes occurred in small, local outbreaks,
most often in late winter or early spring, but it is seen during the entire
year. Kawasaki disease almost always affects children; most patients are under 5
years old and the average age is 2 years old. Boys develop this illness more
often than girls.
What causes Kawasaki disease?
The cause of Kawasaki disease is unknown. Currently, doctors at Children's
Memorial are conducting research to determine its cause and to learn why some
children, but not others, are vulnerable to it.
Kawasaki disease is not contagious and does not appear to be hereditary. It
is rare for more than one child in a family to develop Kawasaki disease. Because
the illness sometimes occurs in outrbreaks, a infectious cause (such as a virus)
is likely.
How do the doctors diagnose Kawasaki disease?
The diagnosis of Kawasaki disease cannot be made by a single test or
combination of tests. A physician makes the dagnosis after carefully examining
the child, hearing the history of onset of symptoms from the parents, and
eliminating the possibilities of the other diseases that can cause similar
findings.
Blood tests may detect mild anemia, an elevated white blood count and an
elevated sedimentation rate, all of which are seen early in the disease. A sharp
elevation of the platelet count (the blood clotting component) is often seen
later in the disease. Sometimes there are white cells in the urine.