Understanding the importance of cerebrovascular involvement in Kawasaki disease.

Understanding the importance of cerebrovascular involvement in Kawasaki disease. Korean J Pediatr. 2019 May 16;: Authors: Yeom JS, Cho JY, Woo HO Abstract Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis in infants and young children. The natural history of KD has not been fully elucidated because the first case of KD was reported in late 1960s and patients who have recovered will just now entering middle age. Nevertheless, several evidences have raised concerns regarding the subclinical vascular changes in post-KD patients. KD have focused on the coronary artery aneurysms because which are directly associated with fatality. However, aneurysms have been reported in other extra-cardiac muscular arteries and their fate seems to resemble that of coronary artery aneurysms. Very rarely, arterial strokes have been also reported in KD. Asymptomatic ischemic lesion has been observed in a prospective study evaluating brain vascular lesion in KD patients with coronary artery aneurysms. A study with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) has suggested that asymptomatic cerebral vasculitis may be more common than we thought. Some authors assumed that the need to consider the possibility of brain vascular lesions in severe cases of KD regardless of presence or absence of neurological symptoms. These findings suggested that KD might be related with cerebrovascular lesions in children or young adults. We need attention to cerebral vascula...
Source: Korean Journal of Pediatrics - Category: Pediatrics Tags: Korean J Pediatr Source Type: research