JCK-5
Recurrent Kawasaki disease and cardiac complications—The Singapore experience
Department of Paediatrics, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Quek Swee Chye

【Aim】The prevalence of recurrent Kawasaki disease (KD) has been variously quoted and is approximately 10%. This paper aimed to study the patients with recurrent KD in Singapore with respect to the prevalence and outcomes, including clinical parameters, and in particular, the cardiac complications.【Method and Results】Patients diagnosed with recurrent KD were identified from our KD database at the National University Hospital, a tertiary teaching hospital in Singapore. There were a total of 6 patients (males = 2, females = 4) identified over a 10-year period from 1998 to 2008, constituting a prevalence of 4.3%. The mean age of first presentation was 24.3 (± 20.1) months, and the period of relapse occurred after 10.6 (± 14.4) months. Laboratory parameters of these 6 children were as follows: TW 19.3 (± 11.7), Platelets 934 (± 447), ESR 80 (± 35), CRP 88 (± 116). Significantly, 5/6 (83%) of the children had cardiac complications. The coronary arteries were dilated in 4/6, with bilateral involvement in 2, and isolated LCA in another 2. All of these resolved on follow up except for one with giant coronary aneurysms who subsequently developed complication of acute myocardial infarction from thrombus formation within the RCA aneurysm. Three patients presented with reduced ventricular function (FS = 26%) at the acute phase, but this resolved over 2 weeks. A significant pericardial effusion was noted in 2/6, but there was no haemodynamic compromise, and the effusions resolved spontaneously. One patient had hydrophs of the gallbladder, while 2 presented with large lymph nodes initially admitted for diagnosis of lymph node abscess. All patients were treated with a second course of IVIG (2 g/kg) and they improved.【Discussion】Recurrent KD is more common in children below 5 years of age. It is associated with abnormal laboratory findings and raised inflammatory markers. Significantly, cardiac complications were much more common and more severe than KD patients without recurrence. Fortunately, the recrudescent disease was treatable with IVIG and there was a propensity for majority of the cardiac complications to improve.

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