How to determine “Kawasaki disease” in children?

  A few days ago, I saw such a child in the emergency room of Children’s Hospital, a 2-year-old girl who had been on an antimicrobial drip for 5 days due to a high fever. “The rash appeared on the third day of the disease. During the examination, I found that in addition to fever and rash, the child had congestion in the conjunctiva of both eyes without secretions, enlarged lymph nodes in the head and neck, severe chapping and bleeding of the lips and mouth, diffuse congestion in the mucous membranes of the mouth and pharynx, a “prune tongue”-like tongue, hard swelling-like changes at the end of the fingers, and swelling around the anus. In the three consecutive routine blood analyses, I found that, in addition to a mild increase in white blood cells, the child’s C-reactive protein was significantly elevated, and the platelets were progressively increasing. After further examination, my judgment was confirmed to be accurate, and after active oral aspirin and high-dose intravenous gammaglobulin shock therapy, the child’s temperature dropped to normal on the day of treatment. He was discharged from the hospital.  Kawasaki disease, also known as cutaneous mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome, is a systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology, named after the discovery of the Japanese Tomisaku Kawasaki, which has a high incidence in Asia. Kawasaki disease itself is not much scary, but what is important is the cardiac complications it produces, such as coronary artery aneurysm-like dilatation, which, if left untreated, can easily lead to cardiovascular accidents in middle and old age. According to a retrospective analysis in authoritative foreign journals, a significant proportion of patients with myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease had similar experiences of Kawasaki disease in their early childhood.  So how to correctly diagnose pediatric Kawasaki disease? According to the criteria established by the Kawasaki disease research committee in Japan: 1. Fever lasting more than 5 days and ineffective antibiotic treatment.  2.Polycystic erythema of the trunk.  3.Conjunctival transient congestion in both eyes without exudate.  4.Mouth and lips are bright red, chapped and bleeding, and the mucous membrane of the mouth and pharynx is diffusely congested with poppy tongue.  5.Stiffness and swelling of the finger and toe ends at the beginning of the disease, redness of the palm and plantar areas, membranous peeling begins to appear after the second week, and perianal peeling may also be seen.  6. Non-suppurative cervical lymph node enlargement. The disease can be diagnosed with the above 5 main symptoms or 4 main symptoms but with coronary artery aneurysm formation. In the ancillary tests, there may also be an increase in blood leukocytes, progressive increase in platelets, accelerated ESR, CRP (+), serum protein electrophoresis: increased α2 globulin, increased immunoglobulin IgA, IgG, IgM, etc. The diagnosis of cardiac lesions can be clarified by means of cardiac ultrasound and cardiovascular angiography. Regarding its treatment, in addition to continuing the conventional oral treatment with aspirin, the current international trend is the high-dose shock therapy with intravenous gammaglobulin, i.e., a total dose of 2g/Kg applied in 2 times, which is very effective in shortening the course of the disease and reducing the degree of complications.  In general, when primary pediatricians find children with continuous high fever that does not subside and is not treated with antimicrobial agents, they should be vigilant, carefully physical examination and improve the auxiliary examination, and give complete treatment to children found to have Kawasaki disease in time to reduce the occurrence of sequelae.