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More than forty years have passed since 1967, when the first case series of Kawasaki disease was reported. 1 Currently, more than half of the patients diagnosed with Kawasaki disease are 16 years of age or older. In Japan, Kawasaki disease is now managed not only by pediatricians but also by internists. As this timeline suggests, it is expected that more than half of the patients with cardiovascular sequelae of Kawasaki disease have reached adulthood. However, since Kawasaki disease develops most frequently by around 1 year of age, many internists are still not familiar with it (Table The main cardiovascular disease caused by Kawasaki disease is vasculitis, and in this respect patients with this disease differ significantly from other adult patients with arteriosclerosis and/or hypertension. Since the number of adult patients with a history of Kawasaki disease will increase over time, pediatric cardiologists need to accurately provide their findings on Kawasaki disease to cardiovascular internists. Reliable means are needed to ensure appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and determination of the prognosis of patients with cardiovascular sequelae in Kawasaki disease. We hope the present guidelines will help healthcare professionals diagnose and treat their patients with Kawasaki disease.
JCS Joint Working Group (Fri,) studied this question.