Kawasaki disease: What you need to know

Jan 16, 2019

Girl with a fever in bed - What is Kawasaki disease? — One of the symptoms of Kawasaki disease is having a prolonged fever greater than five days.

Kawasaki disease is an illness that affects kids and is one of the leading causes of acquired heart disease in children.

“It can be a challenging diagnosis, since it doesn’t have a specific test for it,” said Dr. Richard Willes, pediatric cardiologist with Marshfield Clinic Health System. “It can be overlooked because it can be mistaken for a virus or other infection.”

Kawasaki disease affects the medium sized blood vessels in a child’s body. These blood vessels actually become inflamed. It affects the blood vessels in the eyes or mouth, but can affect other blood vessels including the coronary arteries that lead to the heart.

Symptoms

Symptoms of Kawasaki disease include:

Prolonged fever greater than five days
Peeling skin on lips, hands or feet
Bright red inflamed tongue
Large lymph nodes
Developing a rash
Pinkeye (conjunctivitis) without much discharge

Diagnosis and treatment

If a doctor suspects Kawasaki disease, lab work can be completed to diagnose the disease.

It can lead to increased risk of heart attacks, myocarditis and coronary artery disease.

Intravenous immunoglobulin and oral aspirin is the standard treatment for the disease.

Additional follow-up with a pediatric cardiologist for a few months may be needed to make sure the heart was not affected.

While we know a lot about Kawasaki disease, there is no known cause for it. We do know, however, that the symptoms arise from an auto-immune process,” Willes said.

For more information about Kawasaki disease, please talk to your child’s doctor.

2 responses to “Kawasaki disease: What you need to know”

Pat McCarthy

Feb 8, 2019

Is this similar to Scarlet Fever????

Reply
1. Kirsten Shakal, Shine365 Editor
  
  Feb 11, 2019
  
  Great question, Pat.
  
  Here's what Dr. Willes has to say,
  
  "While Kawasaki disease shares many features with scarlet fever, scarlet fever is a result of streptococcus infection whereas we don’t know the cause of Kawasaki disease. The rash in scarlet fever is a ‘sand paper’ rash while it’s less consistent in Kawasaki disease. Often times blood work and bacterial cultures are necessary to differentiate between the two.
  
  Additionally, scarlet fever is treated with antibiotics. It’s important to get your doctor involved with either of these fevers because they require different treatments and both can have long lasting effects."
  
  -Kirstie
  
  Reply