Research progress of Kawasaki disease and arthritis in children

Abstract

Kawasaki disease(KD) or incomplete KD(IKD) is a systemic vasculitis predominantly affecting young children.Clinical manifestations include fever with no obvious origin, skin damage, abnormalities of mucous membrane and lymph nodes.The disease is often accompanied by serious cardiovascular complications such as coronary artery aneurysm, therefore it attracts more and more attention.But arthritis or arthralgia complicates over one-third of KD or IKD patients.So early-onset arthritis is often indistinguishable from early juvenile idiopathic arthritis, especially systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis(SoJIA). KD and SoJIA are considered to be different diagnoses for children with long-term fever, rash, swollen lymph nodes, and more importantly, the treatment procedures are very different, but it is difficult to completely distinguish the two diseases, especially the IKD and early SoJIA.So in this paper, we will summarize the relationship between KD and arthritis in children, which aims to remind clinicians to pay attention for the diagnosis of KD and IKD.We suggest that physicians should be alert of the fact that they must individualize every patient′s management, rather than merely care by the guidelines, which will delay the treatment. Key words: Kawasaki disease; Arthritis; Systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis; Children