ABSTRACT
Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile illness of childhood and is the primary cause of acquired heart disease in children in the United States and Japan. Initially described by Dr. Tomasaku Kawasaki in 1967 (1), the syndrome was thought to be a benign, self-limited febrile illness. It is now recognized to be a systemic vasculitis occurring predominantly in small and medium-sized muscular arteries, especially the coronary arteries. Specific epidemiological evidence suggests an infectious etiology, but a causative organism or toxin has not been identified. A current theory describes KD as an immunologically mediated generalized vasculitis that is triggered in a susceptible host by a variety of common infectious agents prevalent in the community (2). Morbidity and mortality of the disease are most often due to cardiac sequelae, and treatment is based on prevention of coronary artery aneurysm formation.
