Kawasaki disease
Clinic
- It is a form of vasculitis
- Symptoms include Fever, Cervical Lymphadenopathy, Genital, lips, palms or soles rash and red eyes.
- Hands and feet may peel
- Coronary artery aneurysms
- Scarlet fever
- Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
- COVID-19
Signs / Symptoms
- It often begins with a high and persistent fever
- It is followed by extreme irritability
- Prolonged fever is associated with a higher incidence of cardiac involvement.
- Bilateral conjunctivitis is the most common symptom after fever. (Typically bulbar conjunctivitis). It is not accompanied by suppuration, and is not painful.
- Anterior uveitis, Iritis, Keratitis
- Red tongue, swollen lips with vertical cracking, and bleeding.
- The mucosa of the mouth and throat may be bright red, and the tongue may have a typical "strawberry tongue"
- Cervical lymphadenopathy is seen in 50-75% of children. Affected lymph nodes are painless or minimally painful, nonfluctuant, and nonsuppurative; erythema
Pathophysiology
Mouth symptoms are caused by necrotizing microvasculitis with fibrinoid necrosis.
Less common manifestations | |
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System | Manifestations |
GIT | Diarrhea, chest pain, abdominal pain, vomiting, liver dysfunction, pancreatitis, hydrops gallbladder, parotitis, cholangitis, intussusception, intestinal pseudo-obstruction, ascites, splenic infarction |
MSS | Polyarthritis and arthralgia |
CVS | Myocarditis, pericarditis, tachycardia, valvular heart disease |
GU | Urethritis, prostatitis, cystitis, priapism, interstitial nephritis, orchitis, nephrotic syndrome |
CNS | Lethargy, semicoma, aseptic meningitis, and sensorineural deafness |
RS | Shortness of breath, influenza-like illness, pleural effusion, atelectasis |
Skin | Erythema and induration at BCG vaccination site, Beau's lines, and finger gangrene |
Source: review, table. |
- In the acute phase of the disease, changes in the peripheral extremities can include erythema of the palms and soles, which is often striking with sharp demarcation and often accompanied by painful, brawny edema of the dorsa of the hands or feet, so affected children frequently refuse to hold objects in their hands or to bear weight on their feet.
- In subacute phase, desquamation of the fingers and toes usually begins in the periungual region within two to three weeks after the onset of fever and may extend to include the palms and soles. Around 11% of children affected by the disease may continue skin-peeling for many years. One to two months after the onset of fever, deep transverse grooves across the nails may develop (Beau's lines), and occasionally nails are shed.
- The most common skin manifestation is a diffuse macular-papular erythematous rash, which is quite nonspecific. The rash varies over time and is characteristically located on the trunk; it may further spread to involve the face, extremities, and perineum. Many other forms of cutaneous lesions have been reported; they may include scarlatiniform, papular, urticariform, multiform-like erythema, and purpuric lesions; even micropustules were reported. It can be polymorphic, not itchy, and normally observed up to the fifth day of fever. However, it is never bullous or vesicular.
- In the acute stage of Kawasaki disease, systemic inflammatory changes are evident in many organs. Joint pain (arthralgia) and swelling, frequently symmetrical, and arthritis can also occur. Myocarditis, diarrhea, pericarditis, valvulitis, aseptic meningitis, pneumonitis, lymphadenitis, and hepatitis may be present and are manifested by the presence of inflammatory cells in the affected tissues. If left untreated, some symptoms will eventually relent, but coronary artery aneurysms will not improve, resulting in a significant risk of death or disability due to myocardial infarction. If treated quickly, this risk can be mostly avoided and the course of illness cut short. Signs and symptoms and time course of Kawasaki disease Other reported nonspecific symptoms include cough, rhinorrhea, sputum, vomiting, headache, and seizure.
The course of the disease can be divided into three clinical phases.
- The acute febrile phase, which usually lasts for one to two weeks, is characterized by fever, conjunctival injection, erythema of the oral mucosa, erythema and swelling of the hands and feet, rash, cervical adenopathy, aseptic meningitis, diarrhea, and hepatic dysfunction. Myocarditis is common during this time, and a pericardial effusion may be present. Coronary arteritis may be present, but aneurysms are generally not yet visible by echocardiography.
- The subacute phase begins when fever, rash, and lymphadenopathy resolve at about one to two weeks after the onset of fever, but irritability, anorexia, and conjunctival injection persist. Desquamation of the fingers and toes and thrombocytosis are seen during this stage, which generally lasts until about four weeks after the onset of fever. Coronary artery aneurysms usually develop during this time, and the risk for sudden death is highest.
- The convalescent stage begins when all clinical signs of illness have disappeared, and continues until the sedimentation rate returns to normal, usually at six to eight weeks after the onset of illness.
Adult onset of Kawasaki disease is rare. The presentation differs between adults and children: in particular, it seems that adults more often have cervical lymphadenopathy, hepatitis, and arthralgia.
Some children, especially young infants, have atypical presentations without the classic set of symptoms. Such presentations are associated with a higher risk of cardiac artery aneurysms.
Cardiac[edit]
X-ray showing aneurysmal enlargement of the coronary arteries, which is a complication in a Kawasaki syndrome Heart complications are the most important aspect of Kawasaki disease, which is the leading cause of heart disease acquired in childhood in the United States and Japan. In developed nations, it appears to have replaced acute rheumatic fever as the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children. Coronary artery aneurysms occur as a sequela of the vasculitis in 20–25% of untreated children. It is first detected at a mean of 10 days of illness and the peak frequency of coronary artery dilation or aneurysms occurs within four weeks of onset. Aneurysms are classified into small (internal diameter of vessel wall <5 mm), medium (diameter ranging from 5–8 mm), and giant (diameter > 8 mm). Saccular and fusiform aneurysms usually develop between 18 and 25 days after the onset of illness.
Even when treated with high-dose IVIG regimens within the first 10 days of illness, 5% of children with Kawasaki disease develop at the least transient coronary artery dilation and 1% develop giant aneurysms. Death can occur either due to myocardial infarction secondary to blood clot formation in a coronary artery aneurysm or to rupture of a large coronary artery aneurysm. Death is most common two to 12 weeks after the onset of illness.
Many risk factors predicting coronary artery aneurysms have been identified, including persistent fever after IVIG therapy, low hemoglobin concentrations, low albumin concentrations, high white-blood-cell count, high band count, high CRP concentrations, male sex, and age less than one year. Coronary artery lesions resulting from Kawasaki disease change dynamically with time. Resolution one to two years after the onset of the disease has been observed in half of vessels with coronary aneurysms. Narrowing of the coronary artery, which occurs as a result of the healing process of the vessel wall, often leads to significant obstruction of the blood vessel and the heart not receiving enough blood and oxygen. This can eventually lead to heart muscle tissue death, i.e., myocardial infarction (MI).
MI caused by thrombotic occlusion in an aneurysmal, stenotic, or both aneurysmal and stenotic coronary artery is the main cause of death from Kawasaki disease. The highest risk of MI occurs in the first year after the onset of the disease. MI in children presents with different symptoms from those in adults. The main symptoms were shock, unrest, vomiting, and abdominal pain; chest pain was most common in older children. Most of these children had the attack occurring during sleep or at rest, and around one-third of attacks were asymptomatic.
Valvular insufficiencies, particularly of mitral or tricuspid valves, are often observed in the acute phase of Kawasaki disease due to inflammation of the heart valve or inflammation of the heart muscle-induced myocardial dysfunction, regardless of coronary involvement. These lesions mostly disappear with the resolution of acute illness, but a very small group of the lesions persist and progress. There is also late-onset aortic or mitral insufficiency caused by thickening or deformation of fibrosed valves, with the timing ranging from several months to years after the onset of Kawasaki disease. Some of these lesions require valve replacement.
Other[edit]
Other Kawasaki disease complications have been described, such as aneurysm of other arteries: aortic aneurysm, with a higher number of reported cases involving the abdominal aorta, axillary artery aneurysm, brachiocephalic artery aneurysm, aneurysm of iliac and femoral arteries, and renal artery aneurysm. Other vascular complications can occur such as increased wall thickness and decreased distensibility of carotid arteries, aorta, and brachioradial artery. This change in the vascular tone is secondary to endothelial dysfunction. In addition, children with Kawasaki disease, with or without coronary artery complications, may have a more adverse cardiovascular risk profile, such as high blood pressure, obesity, and abnormal serum lipid profile.
Gastrointestinal complications in Kawasaki disease are similar to those observed in Henoch–Schönlein purpura, such as: intestinal obstruction, colon swelling, intestinal ischemia, intestinal pseudo-obstruction, and acute abdomen.
Eye changes associated with the disease have been described since the 1980s, being found as uveitis, iridocyclitis, conjunctival hemorrhage, optic neuritis, amaurosis, and ocular artery obstruction. It can also be found as necrotizing vasculitis, progressing into peripheral gangrene.
The neurological complications per central nervous system lesions are increasingly reported. The neurological complications found are meningoencephalitis, subdural effusion, cerebral hypoperfusion, cerebral ischemia and infarct, cerebellar infarction, manifesting with seizures, chorea, hemiplegia, mental confusion, lethargy and coma, or even a cerebral infarction with no neurological manifestations. Other neurological complications from cranial nerve involvement are reported as ataxia, facial palsy, and sensorineural hearing loss. Behavioral changes are thought to be caused by localised cerebral hypoperfusion, can include attention deficits, learning deficits, emotional disorders (emotional lability, fear of night, and night terrors), and internalization problems (anxious, depressive or aggressive behavior).
Related disease
Entities
- Vasculitis
- conjunctivitis
- Uveitis
- Iritis
- Lymphadenopathy
Miasm
- ↑ Diniz JC, Almeida RT, Aikawa NE, Sallum AM, Sakane PT, Silva CA. Kawasaki disease and juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus. 2012 Jan;21(1):89-92. doi: 10.1177/0961203311414097. Epub 2011 Sep 29. PMID: 21959137.