Clinical relevance of the risk factors for coronary artery lesions in Kawasaki disease

We aimed to investigate which factors are associated with coronary artery lesions (CALs) during the acute and chronic stages in Taiwanese children with Kawasaki disease (KD). A total of 216 children with KD were enrolled. Clinical and laboratory data were obtained for each child within 7 days of illness. The patients were classified into KD children without acute CALs (n=135) and those with acute CALs (n=81) according to echocardiography data at Week 2 after treatment. Then, KD children with acute CALs were further divided into those without chronic CALs (n=55) and with chronic CALs (n=26) according to annual echocardiography data. During acute stage of KD, neutrophil count (<54%) [odds ratio (OR)=0.44, p=0.041]; second dose of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment (OR=5.01, p=0.009); and platelet count (≤400,000) (OR=0.42, p=0.006) were correlated with the risk of acute CALs. During chronic stage of KD, age (12-60 months) (OR=0.25, p=0.042); first dose of IVIG treatment (OR=0.12, p=0.005); and band count (≥3%) (OR=3.51, p=0.032) were correlated with the risk of chronic CALs. Our results suggest that the effects of neutrophil count, doses of IVIG treatment, and platelet count on CALs in acute KD are important. Age, doses of IVIG treatment, and band count are related to the persistence of CALs in chronic stage of KD.