What is Kawasaki disease?

Kawasaki disease, also known as cutaneous mucosal lymph node syndrome (MCLS), is an acute febrile rash pediatric disease with systemic vasculitis as the main pathology. Kawasaki disease was first reported in Japan in 1967, and its incidence has been increasing year by year, replacing rheumatic fever as the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in China and some western countries. The etiology of the disease has not been clarified so far, and its diagnosis relies mainly on a group of clinical manifestations that appear during the course of the disease without a specific etiological basis. The disease is a vasculitis syndrome that occurs in children aged 2 to 4 years, with a prevalence in boys. In China, the onset is more frequent from July to September. Children often present in the clinic with subconjunctival hemorrhage, or what parents think is bleeding from the white eye, during fever. In the case of large subconjunctival hemorrhage, or a state of persistent conjunctival congestion in both eyes, Kawasaki disease should be ruled out along with local treatment of the eye. Kawasaki disease needs to be ruled out if the child presents with persistent fever for 5 to 11 days or longer (2 weeks to 1 month), often with a temperature of 39°C or higher, ineffective antibiotic therapy, with cardiac damage, and a state of subconjunctival hemorrhage or congestion.