Published 5 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1514
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1514

Clinical Review

Kawasaki disease

Anthony Harnden, university lecturer in general practice1, Masato Takahashi, professor of paediatrics emeritus2, David Burgner, associate professor of paediatrics3

1 Department of Primary Health Care, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LF, 2 University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles, 90027 CA, USA , 3 School of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Western Australia, Child and Adolescent Health Service, GPO Box D184, Perth WA 6840, Australia

Correspondence to: A Harnden anthony.harnden@dphpc.ox.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


Kawasaki disease is an acute febrile illness that mainly affects children under 5
It is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in the developed world
Diagnosis is based on fever of at least five days’ duration and four of five diagnostic clinical criteria
The typical clinical features appear sequentially and are rarely all there at presentation.
The diagnosis should be considered in any child with prolonged fever, irrespective of other features
Intravenous immunoglobulin and aspirin given 5-10 days after onset of fever reduce the incidence of coronary artery lesions from around 20% to around 5%


Parents worry about meningitis, but few have heard of Kawasaki disease, and most doctors have never seen a case. But Kawasaki disease is an important diagnosis not to miss in febrile children because treatment within the first 10 days of illness may prevent acute and long term coronary artery damage, which . . . [Full text of this article]


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