Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of children followed with kawasaki disease

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL AND CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN FOLLOWED WITH KAWASAKI DISEASE Kawasaki's disease is a vasculitis which is not known ethiology, characterized by coronary artery involvement in some of the childhood. Kawasaki disease which is coronary artery involvement should be early diagnosed and treated due to may cause myocardial infarct and death. Therefore, markers that predict coronary artery involvement are needed in cases of Kawasaki. 43 cases with the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease were evaluated in this retrospective study. Children under 5 years of age and male gender were shown as the most prominent feature in cases of kawasaki. 1/3 of the cases were children who were diagnosed with incomplete kawasaki disease and showed coronary artery involvement at a rate similar to the cases of complete kawasaki disease. Although the the male gender and lack of the lymphadenopathy are indicatorsin predicting the risk of coronary artery involvement in Kawasaki disease, there was no other biomarker supporting this. In conclusion, since coronary artery involvement rates are similar to complete kawasaki disease cases, incomplete kawasaki disease should also be followed closely. Neither a finding nor a laboratory parameter alone is sufficient to predict the risk of coronary artery involvement. Therefore, good results can be obtained by evaluating the epidemiological, clinical and laboratory features of Kawasaki disease together and by close follow-up. Keywords: Kawasaki disease, coronary artery involvement, children