What is Kawasaki Disease?
Kawasaki disease is a children’s illness. It’s also known as Kawasaki syndrome or mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome. It and acute rheumatic fever are the two leading causes of acquired heart disease in children in the United States.

About 80 percent of people with Kawasaki disease are under age 5. Children over age 8 are rarely affected. The disease occurs more often among boys (about 1.5 times as often as in girls) and among those of Asian ancestry. But it can occur in every racial and ethnic group.

The symptoms of Kawasaki disease include fever, rash, swollen hands and feet, redness of the whites of the eyes, swollen lymph glands in the neck, and irritation and inflammation of the mouth, lips and throat. Doctors don’t know what causes Kawasaki disease, but it doesn’t appear to be hereditary or contagious. Scientists who’ve studied the disease think the evidence strongly suggests it’s caused by an infectious agent such as a virus. It’s very rare for more than one child in a family to develop Kawasaki disease.

How does Kawasaki Disease affect the heart?
The coronary arteries are most often affected. Part of a coronary wall can be weakened and balloon (bulge out) in an aneurysm. A blood clot can form in this weakened area and block the artery, sometimes leading to a heart attack. The aneurysm also can burst, but this rarely happens.

Other changes include inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) or the sac surrounding the heart (pericarditis). Arrhythmias or abnormal working of some heart valves also can occur.

Usually all the heart problems go away in five or six weeks, and there’s no lasting damage. But sometimes coronary artery damage persists.

An arrhythmia or damaged heart muscle can be detected using an electrocardiogram
ECG). An echocardiogram (or “echo”) is used to look for possible damage to the heart or coronary arteries.






How is Kawasaki Disease treated?
Even though the cause of Kawasaki disease is unknown, certain medicines do help. Aspirin is often used to reduce fever, rash, joint inflammation and pain, and to help prevent blood clots from forming. Another medicine, intravenous gamma globulin, can reduce the risk of developing coronary artery abnormalities when given early in the illness.