Kawasaki Disease: Predicting Treatment Nonresponse

For most children with Kawasaki disease (KD), treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) reduces the duration of fever and other symptoms and decreases the risk for developing coronary artery aneurysms. For some children, however, a single treatment with IVIG does not produce symptom abatement, and the risk for developing coronary artery aneurysms increases. Researchers at a large children’s hospital in California reviewed the medical records of KD patients discharged from 2002 through 2006 to determine the risk factors for nonresponse to IVIG treatment. At this hospital, diagnosis of KD followed American Heart Association guidelines, and details of KD management (including the treatment doses of IVIG and aspirin, as well as follow-up…