Kawasaki disease

noun

Ka·​wa·​sa·​ki disease ˌkä-wə-ˈsä-kē- 

variants or Kawasaki syndrome or less commonly Kawasaki's disease

ˌkä-wə-ˈsä-kēz- 

or Kawasaki's syndrome or Kawasaki

: an acute inflammatory illness involving blood vessels throughout the body that is of unknown cause and chiefly affects infants and children

Note: Kawasaki disease is characterized especially by fever, redness and swelling of the hands and feet (often followed by peeling of the skin), conjunctivitis, a reddish rash typically on the abdomen and groin, inflammation of mucous membranes (as of the tongue and throat), and swollen lymph nodes in the neck. It may progress to sometimes life-threatening inflammation of heart muscle and coronary artery damage, such as bulging and thinning of the artery walls.

The high fever, rash, red lips and palms, and swollen lymph nodes pointed to another condition—Kawasaki disease. First identified in Japan in 1967, Kawasaki strikes more than 2,000 U.S. children annually, 80 percent of them under age five.

—Michael Castleman

The most serious complications of Kawasaki disease involve the coronary vessels and the heart. About 14% to 30% of the affected cases have been shown to develop coronary aneurysms, resulting in acute myocardial infarction in some cases, and death may occur in 2%.

—Gideon Koren et al.

By nightfall the boy was started on a high dose of aspirin and IVIG, an infusion containing antibodies collected from thousands of blood donors, the first-line treatment for Kawasaki disease.

—Lisa Sanders

—abbreviation KD

called also mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome

Examples of Kawasaki disease in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Seventeen days ago, the girl’s pediatrician’s office had missed her case of Kawasaki disease. —Emily Baumgaertner Ariana Drehsler, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2024

Jett, who had Kawasaki disease, died in January 2009 at the age of 16 after having a seizure at the family's vacation home in the Bahamas. —Charna Flam, Peoplemag, 26 Dec. 2023

Bobbie and then-husband Tony (played by Brad Maule) made the decision to donate their daughter's heart to her cousin, Maxie, who was battling Kawasaki disease. —CBS News, 11 May 2023

Bobbie and then-husband Tony (played by Brad Maule) made the decision to donate their daughter’s heart to her cousin, Maxie, who had Kawasaki disease. —Alicia Rancilio, BostonGlobe.com, 11 May 2023

Bobbie and then-husband Tony (played by Brad Maule) made the decision to donate their daughter’s heart to her cousin, Maxie, who was battling Kawasaki disease. —Alicia Rancilio, USA TODAY, 11 May 2023

Specifically, Salazar hopes to develop a tool that can easily diagnose MIS-C, which presents similar symptoms to COVID-19 and to Kawasaki disease, another rare condition affecting children. —Alex Putterman, courant.com, 22 Dec. 2020

Fauci warned in a May hearing while the school closure debate was ongoing that Kawasaki disease, which causes inflammation in blood vessels in children, could be related to COVID-19. —Emma Colton, Washington Examiner, 1 Dec. 2020

The condition now known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is believed to be a rare but severe complication following a COVID-19 infection that shares some similarities with Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome. —Angie Leventis Lourgos, chicagotribune.com, 23 Oct. 2020

Word History

Etymology

Tomisaku Kawasaki born 1925 Japanese pediatrician

First Known Use

1975, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

Kawasaki disease

noun

Ka·​wa·​sa·​ki disease ˌkä-wə-ˈsä-kē- 

variants or Kawasaki syndrome also Kawasaki's disease

-kēz- 

or Kawasaki's syndrome or Kawasaki

: an acute inflammatory illness involving blood vessels throughout the body that is of unknown cause and chiefly affects infants and children

Note: Kawasaki disease is characterized especially by fever, redness and swelling of the hands and feet (often followed by desquamation), conjunctivitis, a reddish rash typically on the abdomen and groin, inflammation of mucous membranes (as of the tongue or throat), and swollen lymph nodes in the neck. It may progress to sometimes life-threatening inflammation of heart muscle and coronary artery damage such as bulging and thinning of the artery walls.

Kawasaki disease affects children of all ethnic backgrounds throughout the world, although susceptibility is shaped by genetic influences. Japanese children have the highest incidence of the disease, with an attack rate that has reached 175 per 100,000 children younger than 5 years …

—Jane C. Burns, The New England Journal of Medicine

Kawasaki syndrome typically produces a spiking fever that lasts several days. A rash can appear anywhere on the body but tends to peel around the fingers and toes. It also produces a "strawberry tongue" that makes the tongue rough and swollen lymph nodes.

—Lawrence K. Altman, The New York Times

The most serious complications of Kawasaki disease involve the coronary vessels and the heart. About 14% to 30% of the affected cases have been shown to develop coronary aneurysms, resulting in acute myocardial infarction in some cases, and death may occur in 2%.

—Gideon Koren et al., The Journal of the American Medical Association

First identified in Japan in 1967, Kawasaki strikes more than 2,000 U.S. children annually, 80 percent of them under age five.

—Michael Castleman, Parenting

—abbreviation KD

called also mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome