Kawasaki Disease: Kawasaki disease, also known as mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome, is a rare childhood disease in which blood vessels throughout the body become inflamed. The common Kawasaki disease symptoms include a fever that lasts for over five days, Swollen lymph nodes in the neck, a rash in the genital area, and red eyes, lips, hands or feet.
Other Kawasaki symptoms include a sore throat and diarrhea. Within three weeks of the onset of marks, the skin from the hands and feet may peel. Recovery then typically happens. In some children, coronary artery aneurysms may develop in the heart after 1–2 years.
The Kawasaki disease cause is unknown. The Kawasaki syndrome may be for an infection triggering an autoimmune response. Kawasaki disease can’t pass from one child to another. Diagnosis is normally by on a person’s signs and symptoms. Other diagnostics tests such as an ultrasound of the heart and blood tests may confirm the diagnosis. Other conditions that may present likewise include juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and scarlet fever.
Typically, initial Kawasaki disease treatment comprises high doses of aspirin and immunoglobulin. Do not give your child aspirin without your physician’s orders. If it involves the coronary arteries, ongoing treatment or surgery may it may require ongoing treatment or surgery.
Kawasaki disease is rare. It attacks between 8 and 67 per 100,000 people under the age of five except in Japan wherever it affects 124 per 100,000. It is less common after the age of five. Boys are commonly affected than girls. The Kawasaki disease was first described in 1967 by Tomisaku Kawasaki in Japan.
Kawasaki Disease Symptoms
Kawasaki Disease begins with a high fever (>102 degrees F), have a fever for 5 days or longer, along with other signs and symptoms combine-
- The rash that can cover the whole body but more severe in the diaper area.
- Red, bloodshot eyes with no pus, drainage, or crusting.
- Tender, swollen lymph node on one side of the neck.
- Swollen hands and feet with redness on the soles of the feet and on the palms of the hands.
- Peeling skin on the fingers and toes, typically 2 to 3 weeks after the beginning of fever.
- Red, swollen lips; swollen strawberry-like tongue with rough, red spots.
- Significant irritability and fussiness.
The above Kawasaki Disease symptoms may not be present at the same time. In some young infants, only a few of these develop. Other non-specific Kawasaki Disease symptoms may also be present, such as vomiting, stomachache, diarrhoea, cough, runny nose, headache, or pain or swelling of the joints. Kawasaki disease might make your child irritable. The illness can persist for a few weeks.
Kawasaki Disease Causes
The Kawasaki disease causes still unknown, it refers to the illness to as Kawasaki syndrome. It doesn’t seem to be hereditary or contagious. Sometimes over one child in a family can gain it, which may intimate a genetic predisposition for Kawasaki disease.
It has known an association with an SNP in the ITPKC gene, which codes an enzyme that negatively regulates T-cell activation. Regardless of wherever they are living, Japanese children are more credible than other children to exhibit the disease, which implies genetic susceptibility. It has determined the HLA-B51 serotype to be associated with endemic instances of the condition.
How Kawasaki Disease Affect the Heart?
Damage sometimes transpires to the blood vessels, including those supply the heart muscle (coronary arteries) and the heart muscle itself. It can weaken the coronary wall and balloon in an aneurysm. A blood clot can develop in this weakened region and block the artery. If it does not check the clots, this can begin to a heart attack. Favorably, treatment within the first 10 days of illness significantly reduces the chance for aneurysms to develop. Therefore, it is notably important that it establish a diagnosis by the 10th day of the illness. Treatment should start as soon as possible.
Other changes are inflammation of the heart muscle or the sac that encloses the heart. Irregular heart rhythms and heart valve difficulties can also occur. The heart difficulties normally go away in five or six weeks. There’s normally no lasting damage. But sometimes coronary artery damage continues.
Kawasaki Disease Diagnosis
A particular test or group of tests can diagnose Kawasaki syndrome. The physician will do a physical exam and test the symptoms. Physicians make the diagnosis after thoroughly examining the child, observing signs and symptoms and excluding the possibility of other similar diseases that include Rocky Mountain spotted fever, scarlet fever, and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
Blood tests
- The complete blood count may exhibit normocytic anaemia and ultimately thrombocytosis.
- It will raise c-reactive protein.
- It will raise the erythrocyte sedimentation rate.
- Liver function tests may show a sign of hepatic inflammation and lowering serum albumin levels.
Other elective tests include:
- An electrocardiogram may reveal evidence of ventricular dysfunction or, arrhythmia because of myocarditis.
- Angiography applied to detect coronary artery aneurysms, and remains the gold standard for their detection, but is unusually used today unless coronary artery aneurysms have already been detected by echocardiography.
- An echocardiogram may reveal subtle coronary artery changes or, later, true aneurysms.
- Ultrasound or computerized tomography may reveal enlargement of the gallbladder.
- Urinalysis may reveal white blood cells and protein in the urine without evidence of bacterial growth.
- The lumbar puncture may exhibit evidence of aseptic meningitis.
Kawasaki Disease Treatment
Treatment should start as soon as possible, the aim of Kawasaki disease treatment is to relieve symptoms and check the long-term damage. The physician may give high doses of aspirin to lower your child’s fever. It helps to reduce the rash and joint pain. It can keep your child’s blood from developing clots. Following the fever goes down, low doses of aspirin can diminish the chance of heart problems. Do not give aspirin without your doctor’s orders. It can cause side effects, depending on your child’s health records. Your physician might give your child immunoglobulin with intravenous (IV) doses of gamma globulin, an ingredient of blood that helps the body fight infection.
Most children with Kawasaki disease get enormously better after a single treatment with gamma globulin, though sometimes further doses are required. Most kids recover fully, but some who reveal heart problems after Kawasaki disease might need further testing and treatments with a cardiologist.
Children who have severe cases may need surgery. This repairs injured blood vessels or arteries.