Update of the epidemiology of Kawasaki disease in Japan--from the results of 1993-94 nationwide survey.

Abstract

The objective of this article is to describe the epidemiologic pictures of Kawasaki disease(KD) in Japan during the 2-year period of 1993 and 1994 based on the data obtained by the thirteenth nationwide epidemiologic survey of KD which was conducted by the Japan Kawasaki Disease Research Committee. A survey form and diagnostic criteria of KD were sent to all hospital pediatric departments (2,640) throughout Japan with 100 or more beds. The patients to be reported in this surveys were all the incident KD cases who satisfied the diagnostic criteria. (1) A total of 1,730 (65.5%) hospitals responded, reporting 11,458(5,389 in 1993 and 6,069 in 1994; 6,729 males and 4,729 females; male/female ratio = 1.42) with an incidence rate of 95.1 per 100,000 children of age < 5 years. (2) The monthly number of patients was higher in winter and summer, although the monthly difference was not marked. (3) Age specific incidence rates showed a uni-modal peak at one year of age. (4) The proportion of patients with family history of KD in sibling was 1%. (5) The proportion of recurrent patients was 3%. (6) The proportion of patients with cardiac sequelae in one month after disease onset was 13%. (7) Number of fatal patients reported was 9, which conforms to 0.08% of total patients.