Kawasaki Families' Network

A look at current research

We'd like to help keep you informed about the ongoing search for answers about Kawasaki syndrome. The following was excerpted from An April 6 Loyola University Medical Center press release.

A disease that strikes very young children, appears to occur more frequently among higher socioeconomic groups and Asian populations and can lead to heart disease and even death is under investigation at Loyola University Medical Center, Chicago, with the aid of a five-year, $401,490 federal government grant.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded the support to Loyola to search for a cause of Kawasaki disease, said Dr. Anne Rowley, director of pediatric infectious diseases at the Loyola Children's Hospital and lead investigator for the study.

Rowley hypothesizes that a virus may be to blame for the disease, which is difficult to diagnose but can be effectively treated with intravenous gamma globulin, an antibody preparation made from blood products. The treatment requires hospitalization until the child's fever resolves, usually within two to five days.

"The disease restricts itself to a very specific age group, does not respond to antibiotics and is self-limiting, namely, the initial symptoms may go away without treatment. All these attributes are typical of a viral disorder," Rowley said.

Because general symptoms of the disease are common to other disorders and patients do not always exhibit all of the disease features, Kawasaki disease is often difficult to diagnose, Rowley said.

"Even blood tests on these patients show abnormalities that are typical of infection, but do not specifically indicate the patient has Kawasaki disease," Rowley said.

In the study, investigators will examine blood and other tissue samples from patients affected by Kawasaki disease to search for evidence of non-human nucleic acids, namely the RNA and DNA of a virus, and the presence of any antibodies that the patient my have developed against the disease.

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