Kawasaki Disease: A Brief History
Authors: Burns Jane C. , Kushner Howard I. , Bastian John F. , Shike Hiroko , Shimizu Chisato , Matsubara Tomoyo , Turner Christena L. 
Published: August 2004

Tomisaku Kawasaki published the first English-language report of 50 patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) in 1974. Since that time, KD has become the leading cause of acquired heart disease among children in North America and Japan. Although an infectious agent is suspected, the cause remains unknown. However, significant progress has been made toward understanding the natural history of the disease and therapeutic interventions have been developed that halt the immune-mediated destruction of the arterial wall. We present a brief history of KD, review progress in research on the disease, and suggest avenues for future study.

Kawasaki saw his first case of KD in January 1961 and published his first report in Japanese in 1967. Whether cases existed in Japan before that time is currently under study. The most significant controversy in the 1960s in Japan was whether the rash and fever sign/symptom complex described by Kawasaki was connected to subsequent cardiac complications in a number of cases. Pathologist Noboru Tanaka and pediatrician Takajiro Yamamoto disputed the early assertion of Kawasaki that KD was a self-limited illness with no sequelae. This controversy was resolved in 1970 when the first Japanese nationwide survey of KD documented 10 autopsy cases of sudden cardiac death after KD. By the time of the first English-language publication by Kawasaki in 1974, the link between KD and coronary artery vasculitis was well-established.

KD was independently recognized as a new and distinct condition in the early 1970s by pediatricians Marian Melish and Raquel Hicks at the University of Hawaii. In 1973, at the same Hawaiian hospital, pathologist Eunice Larson, in consultation with Benjamin Landing at Los Angeles Children's Hospital, retrospectively diagnosed a 1971 autopsy case as KD. The similarity between KD and infantile periarteritis nodosa (IPN) was apparent to these pathologists, as it had been to Tanaka earlier.

What remains unknown is the reason for the simultaneous recognition of this disease around the world in the 1960s and 1970s. There are several possible explanations. KD may have been a new disease that emerged in Japan and emanated to the Western World through Hawaii, where the disease is prevalent among Asian children. Alternatively, KD and IPN may be part of the spectrum of the same disease and clinically mild KD masqueraded as other diseases, such as scarlet fever in the preantibiotic era. Case reports of IPN from Western Europe extend back to at least the 19th century, but, thus far, cases of IPN have not been discovered in Japan before World War II. Perhaps the factors responsible for KD were introduced into Japan after the World War II and then reemerged in a more virulent form that subsequently spread through the industrialized Western world. It is also possible that improvements in health care and, in particular, the use of antibiotics to treat infections caused by organisms including toxin-producing bacteria reduced the burden of rash/fever illness and allowed KD to be recognized as a distinct clinical entity.

Itsuzo Shigematsu, Hiroshi Yanagawa, and colleagues have conducted 14 nationwide surveys in Japan. These have indicated that: 1) KD occurred initially in nationwide epidemics but now occurs in regional outbreaks; 2) there are ∼5000 to 6000 new cases each year; 3) current estimates of incidence rates are 120 to 150 cases per 100 000 children &lt;5 years old; 4) KD is 1.5 times more common in males and 85% of cases occur in children &lt;5 years old; and 5) the recurrence rate is low (4%). In 1978, David Morens at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a case definition based on Kawasaki's original criteria. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed a computerized database in 1984, and a passive reporting system currently exists in 22 states. Regional investigations and national surveys suggest an annual incidence of 4 to 15 cases per 100 000 children &lt;5 years of age in the United States.

The natural history of KD reveals that coronary artery aneurysms occur as a sequela of the vasculitis in 20% to 25% of untreated children. Echocardiography can be successfully used to detect coronary artery dilatation and aneurysms in virtually all patients. Patients with no acute phase coronary artery changes detected by echocardiogram are clinically asymptomatic at least 10 years later. The Japanese Ministry of Health has established a registry of 6500 children who will be followed longitundinally to determine the natural history of the illness. No similar registry of patients exists in the United States.

Studies of KD pathogenesis show a progression of arterial lesions accompanying KD vasculitis and a number of immunoregulatory changes, including a deficiency of circulating CD8+ suppressor/cytotoxic T cells; an abundance of circulating B cells spontaneously producing immunoglobulins; and circulating, activated monocytes. Biochemical and immunologic evidence suggests endothelial cell activation and injury. Although the cause of KD remains unknown, clinical trials have established effective therapies, despite the absence of a proven cause. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) plus aspirin lowers the rate of coronary artery aneurysms from 20% to between 3% and 5%. In 1988, the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed IVIG treatment as recommended therapy for KD. Questions remain regarding treatment of patients who fail to respond to an initial dose of IVIG. The role of steroids or other antiinflammatory agents in the treatment of KD is controversial.

Areas for further research include: 1) a more sensitive case definition that includes laboratory and echocardiographic data, as well as clinical signs and symptoms; 2) development of a diagnostic test based on the biology of inflammation and acute endothelial cell damage that, in the absence of the causative agent, could be used to identify children with KD; 3) studies of index cases and their families to identify relevant genetic factors; and 4) long-term follow-up of patients into their third and fourth decades with monitoring for late cardiovascular sequelae.