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The etiology of Kawasaki disease has remained elusive. When a child presents with fever and associated Kawasaki symptoms, alternative diagnoses are frequently sought to rule out the disease. To assess the role of respiratory viruses, researchers retrospectively studied 192 patients with a discharge diagnosis of Kawasaki disease at a single institution where the standard of care was to test for 16 respiratory viruses by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays.
At least one respiratory virus was detected in 42% of children, and of these, half reported current upper respiratory symptoms. Rhinovirus/enterovirus were the most commonly identified (28%), followed by adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, and human metapneumovirus (5% each). Clinic…