Kawasaki disease

Kawasaki disease is an acute inflammation of the blood vessels vasculitis with fever, which most commonly occurs in young children. The cause of this disease is unknown, but it is believed that the symptoms of the disease are triggered by a genetically predisposed susceptibility to one or more infectious factors. Kawasaki disease presents with fever, various forms of rash, inflammation of the eyes, inflammation of the oral mucosa, strawberry tongue discoloration, swelling and redness of the palms and soles, and enlargement of lymph nodes on one side of the neck lymph nodes. It lasts for five days or more. One in four untreated patients dies due to dilation of the coronary arteries. Kawasaki disease is the most common cause of heart failure in children under 5 years of age. It most commonly affects Asians, children from 3 months to 4 years old, and boys.

Source | Author Doctor Nikas Samuolis, reviewed by Prof. Virginijus Šapoka | Vilnius University | Faculty of Medicine | Head of the Department of Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and Oncology