Atypical kawasaki disease presenting with symptoms from the genitourinary system: an autopsy report

Autopsy report of a sudden infant death that was strongly suspicious of Kawasaki disease

We conducted an autopsy on a 3-month-old boy in whom Kawasaki disease (KD) was strongly suspected based on the autopsy findings. The infant had a fever and was brought to a nearby clinic, where he was prescribed antipyretics and kept under observation. However, 15 days after onset of the fever, he suddenly died in bed. He exhibited no obvious redness of the lips, tongue, or conjunctiva. Membranous desquamation was present on his distal fingers. Vasculitis was observed in the coronary arteries, renal artery, splenic artery, and pulmonary vein. In addition, coronary artery aneurysms were present in the right coronary artery and left anterior descending artery. Thrombotic occlusion was observed in one aneurysm in the right coronary artery, resulting in acute myocardial infarction. The coronary artery wall showed infiltration of numerous macrophages and neutrophils. This case was classified as incomplete KD because the coronary artery aneurysm could not be demonstrated before death and was only recognized at autopsy. Pathologists and forensic scientists need to be aware that there are cases in which KD goes undiagnosed and untreated, leading to coronary artery aneurysm formation and sudden death.

Autoptic Findings in Cases of Sudden Death Due to Kawasaki Disease

Kawasaki disease (KD) is the second-most-common childhood vasculitis, and its etiology is still unknown today. Even though the acute illness is usually self-limiting, sometimes, it can generate complications, such as coronary artery aneurysms (CAA), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure, or arrhythmias, and can rarely cause sudden or unexpected deaths. We present a review of the literature, which collects autoptic and histopathological data relating to many of the cases of these deaths. On the basis of the titles and abstracts, we selected 54 scientific publications for a total of 117 cases. Among them, as expected, the majority of the deaths were due to AMI (41.03%), arrhythmia (8.55%), acute coronary syndrome (8.55%), and CAA rupture (11.97%), involving mostly 20-year-olds or younger individuls (69.23%). This is not surprising since the CAs are the most involved arteries. Gross autoptic and histopathological findings are reported in the paper. Our work revealed that, when compared with the incidence of KD, only a few cases suffered from sudden death, underwent an autoptic examination, and were then described in the literature. We suggest that researchers should perform autopsies to gain a better understanding of the molecular pathways involved in KD so as to propose further innovative therapeutic protocols or implement more appropriate prevention schemes.

An Update on Reports of Atypical Presentations of Kawasaki Disease and the Recognition of IVIG Non-Responder Children

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute vasculitis with an intrinsic risk of severe involvement of coronary arteries. The worldwide spread of KD and the importance of early diagnosis for preventing cardiovascular complications have ascertained the need for updating guidelines for prompt disease recognition and treatment efficacy assessment. All KD patients who comply with the definition of classic or atypical disease should be treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) soon after diagnosis. The objective of our narrative review was to analyze the medical literature about case reports with atypical KD in relation to diagnosis and potential identification of predictors of non-responsiveness to IVIG. Our analysis has shown that the seminal challenge in KD management is the timeliness of diagnosis, although both extreme variability and transience of clinical manifestations make this goal difficult. A non-negligible percentage of patients, especially in the first 6 months of life, might have atypical manifestations of KD, whose painstaking differential diagnosis may be tricky. Many attempts to develop universal scoring systems and detect children at higher risk of IVIG resistance have been rather unsuccessful. Additionally, KD may show different evolutions according to unraveled demographic, genetic, or epigenetic factors. Further research is needed to elucidate all open questions about KD and clarify the long-term outcome of its potential complications.

Acute kidney injury in patients with Kawasaki disease

BACKGROUND

Kawasaki disease was well known for coronary artery abnormalities with few reports of incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI). Our aim was to identify the rate of AKI in patients with Kawasaki disease and its associated factors.

METHODS

All patients with Kawasaki disease admitted to a medical center from February 2004 to August 2014 were evaluated. Data collection included serum creatinine level, serial echocardiography reports, white blood cell count, C-reactive protein level, alanine transaminase level, urine white blood cell count, and renal ultrasound reports if available. AKI was defined when a patient's serum creatinine level was higher than 1.5 times upper limits of age-specific serum creatinine levels.

RESULTS

This cohort study included 332 patients (191 boys and 141 girls; aged 0.12 to 11.3 y, median 1.39 y) and 93 patients (28%) of them had AKI. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that age and alanine transaminase level were significantly associated with AKI (odds ratio (OR): 0.521, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.377-0.718, P < 0.001, and OR: 1.003, 95% CI: 1.000-1.005, P = 0.017, respectively).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated that AKI exists in substantial proportion of patients with KD. Young age and high alanine transaminase level are the main associated factors for AKI in these patients.

Kidney and urinary tract involvement in kawasaki disease

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis and can develop multiple organ injuries including kidney and urinary tract involvement. These disorders include pyuria, prerenal acute kidney injury (AKI), renal AKI caused by tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN), hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and immune-complex mediated nephropathy, renal AKI associated with either Kawasaki disease shock syndrome or unknown causes, acute nephritic syndrome (ANS), nephrotic syndrome (NS), renal tubular abnormalities, renal abnormalities in imaging studies, and renal artery lesions (aneurysms and stenosis). Pyuria is common in KD and originates from the urethra and/or the kidney. TIN with AKI and renal tubular abnormalities probably result from renal parenchymal inflammation caused by T-cell activation. HUS and renal artery lesions are caused by vascular endothelial injuries resulting from vasculitis. Some patients with ANS have immunological abnormalities associated with immune-complex formation. Nephromegaly and renal parenchymal inflammatory foci are detected frequently in patients with KD by renal ultrasonography and renal scintigraphy, respectively. Although the precise pathogenesis of KD is not completely understood, renal vasculitis, immune-complex mediated kidney injuries, or T-cell immune-regulatory abnormalities have been proposed as possible mechanisms for the development of kidney and urinary tract injuries.

Medium-size-vessel vasculitis

Medium-size-artery vasculitides do occur in childhood and manifest, in the main, as polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), cutaneous PAN and Kawasaki disease. Of these, PAN is the most serious, with high morbidity and not inconsequential mortality rates. New classification criteria for PAN have been validated that will have value in epidemiological studies and clinical trials. Renal involvement is common and recent therapeutic advances may result in improved treatment options. Cutaneous PAN is a milder disease characterised by periodic exacerbations and often associated with streptococcal infection. There is controversy as to whether this is a separate entity or part of the systemic PAN spectrum. Kawasaki disease is an acute self-limiting systemic vasculitis, the second commonest vasculitis in childhood and the commonest cause of childhood-acquired heart disease. Renal manifestations occur and include tubulointerstitial nephritis and renal failure. An infectious trigger and a genetic predisposition seem likely. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IV-Ig) and aspirin are effective therapeutically, but in resistant cases, either steroid or infliximab have a role. Greater understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms involved in these three types of vasculitis and better long-term follow-up data will lead to improved therapy and prediction of prognosis.

Atypical and incomplete Kawasaki disease

Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common systemic vasculitis in childhood after Henoch-Schonlein purpura, and the most common cause of acquired heart disease among children living in Western countries. Its diagnosis relies on clinical findings; laboratory tests are useful to rule out other causes of unexplained fever but are not specific for the diagnosis of KD. Numerous efforts to produce a diagnostic algorithm have been made, but without success. Expert opinion is therefore required in doubtful cases, especially those that lack classical criteria (the so-called atypical or incomplete cases). Renal, gastrointestinal, neurologic, pulmonary and ocular involvements have all been described. Infants may be at higher risk of complications since recognising manifestations of the disease might be more difficult in this group. Approaches to treatment and follow-up of KD are changing in parallel with changes in concepts of what constitutes classical and incomplete KD. Guiding this evolution is the probability that the diagnosis is actually KD, the duration of the child's illness and the desired effects of therapy. Until a gold standard for diagnosing KD is available, these therapeutic decisions will continue to be made on an individual basis.