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Kawasaki Disease: Illness
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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.
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Follow-up should be conducted by cardiologists experienced with Kawasaki disease. Echocardiography at 6 to 8 weeks after acute illness is essential. Need for long-term anti-platelet therapy and further cardiac follow-up decisions depend on these results. Most treated patients recover fully. Coronary aneurysms ≤8 mm in diameter usually resolve. Larger aneurysms often are associated with long-term complications and may result in disabilities or risk of cardiac events during sports or other activities with high cardiovascular demand.
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If your child has been diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, it is important to follow up with your doctor. An echocardiogram may be done at 2 to 3 weeks and 6 to 8 weeks after the illness to check for aneurysms.
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Gene-expression profiles might be used to identify prognostic biomarkers for Kawasaki disease, and help to unravel the underlying biology of the illness, research published this week in the online open access journal Genome Biology reveals. The new findings ... support the idea that gene-expression profiles might be used to generate biomarkers for other systemic inflammatory illnesses.
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No laboratory test can diagnose Kawasaki disease with 100 percent certainty. Instead, a set of criteria described by the Centers for Disease Control are used. The illness can be divided into three phases: acute, sub-acute, and convalescent. Read more on Kawasaki disease diagnosis.
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*Patients with fever and fewer than 4 principal symptoms can be diagnosed as having Kawasaki disease when coronary artery disease is detected by 2-dimensional echocardiography or coronary angiography. Other diagnoses should be excluded. The physician should be aware that some children with illness not fulfilling these criteria have developed coronary artery aneurysms.
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