Atypical Kawasaki disease

Abstract

Introduction. Kawasaki disease is an acute vasculitis which occurs primarily in children under the age of 5. The etiology of the disease is still unknown. Diagnostic criteria for Kawasaki disease are fever and at least four of the five additional clinical signs. Incomplete Kawasaki disease should be taken into consideration in case of all children with unexplained fever for more than 5 days, associated with 2 or 3 of the main clinical findings of Kawasaki disease. The diagnosis of incomplete Kawasaki disease is based on echocardiographic findings indicating the involvement of the coronary arteries. Cardiac complications, mostly coronary artery aneurysm, can occur in 20% to 25% of untreated patients and in 4% of treated patients. Case Report. In this report we present a case of atypical Kawasaki disease in a 3.5-month-old infant. As soon as the diagnosis was made, the patient received high doses of intravenous immunoglobulin, with the initial introduction of ibuprofen, then aspirin with a good clinical response. Due to the presence of aneurysm of coronary arteries, further therapy involved aspirin and clopidogrel over the following 3 months, and then only aspirin for 2 years. There was a gradual regression of the changes in the coronary blood vessels to the normalization of the echocardiographic findings after 2 years. Conclusion. Kawasaki disease is the second most common vasculitis of childhood, so it should be included in the differential diagnosis for any child with a prolonged unexplained fever. Atypical Kawasaki disease should be taken into consideration in cases when not all clinical criteria are present but coronary abnormalities are documented.