Special issues in diagnosis of Kawasaki disease / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute, self-limiting, and medium-sized vasculitis, which has been the commonest cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed countries.Without timely diagnosis and treatment, up-to 25% of the affected children may develop coronary artery abnormalities (CAA). Due to the lack of the specific diagnostic method, KD is mainly diagnosed according to the clinical criteria.As a result, typical KD is recognized easily, but it is a big challenge to diagnose KD patients with incomplete or atypical symptoms.The pandemic of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) around the world makes the diagnosis of KD even more complex.In this review, hot issues in diagnosing KD were discussed according to the 2017 guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of KD recently published by the American Heart Association (AHA), expecting to provide help for diagnosis of KD children.