Changing Clinical Face of Kawasaki Disease in Turkish Children

Introduction Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common cause of systemic vasculitis in children [1]. Initially, it was described in 1967 by Tomisaku Kawasaki as mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome in 50 children with mucocutaneous changes and lymph node enlargement [2]. It is an acute febrile disease with an unknown cause and is characterized by systemic vascular inflammation involving smallto medium-sized arteries [3]. The exact etiology remains unknown in Kawasaki disease. It most commonly affects children younger than 5 years. A coronary artery aneurysm develops in approximately 15–25% of untreated cases, and may lead to myocardial infarction, ischemic heart disease and sudden death. This risk drops below 5% with an early Abstract