Answers 'very close' for Kawasaki Disease
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO — Researchers are getting closer to pinpointing what causes Kawasaki Disease, a mystifying illness that can damage arteries in a child's heart.
A Hawai'i chapter of the parent organization Kawasaki Disease Foundation is organizing. For information, contact the foundation at info@kdfoundation.org.
That message, as well as encouraging prospects for long-term regimens to improve heart health, was delivered to parents as part of last week's eighth International Kawasaki Disease Symposium in San Diego.
Parents uniting
The disease is of great interest in Hawai'i — among researchers and parents — because of its high rate of incidence here. Kawasaki is usually identified by symptoms including high fever, rash and redness of the eyes and lips and is more prevalent among children of Asian ancestry.
Dr. Marian Melish, infectious diseases specialist at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children, presented a summary of the 267 Hawai'i children hospitalized with Kawasaki cases between 1996 and 2001. Melish found that the highest incidence was among children of Japanese ancestry.
The nonprofit parents organization Kawasaki Disease Foundation organized a separate symposium for about 70 parents on Saturday as part of the four-day medical meeting that ended Saturday.
Finding the cause is perhaps the greatest concern because it would lead to quicker diagnosis and fewer lasting heart problems among patients. Many were interested in a recent study suggesting that a new "coronavirus" — a microbe similar to the one that caused the SARS epidemic — was a Kawasaki trigger.
However, Dr. Stanford Shulman, a researcher at Chicago's Northwestern University and The Children's Memorial Hospital, told parents that further research in Chicago, Hawai'i and other population centers have not shown the same linkage between the new infectious agent and Kawasaki Disease.
Further, he said, research at Children's has suggested an association with a different virus, so there is no clear answer yet.
"But I think we're getting very close," Shulman said, addressing parents who had gathered from Japan and across the United States to hear about what the experts have learned.
Most children who are diagnosed early and treated recover with no apparent lasting effects, doctors said, but the artery walls can become damaged and expand, causing aneurysms where blood clots can form and potentially cause heart attacks. This damage results when, during the acute phase of the illness, white blood cells invade the wall of the artery, said Dr. Masato Takahashi of Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
Studies have shown that daily doses of Vitamins C and E improve artery functioning in children with aneurysms caused by the disease, said Dr. Brian McCrindle of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
