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The news of Jetta Travolta, son of John Travolta and Kelly Peterson died suddenly after suffering a seizure while he was on vacation with his family in Bahamas. He was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease when he was just 15 months old. Brian Litteral of the Backstreet Boys fame also announced of his son Baylee being diagnosed with Kawasaki disease.

Kawasaki disease: it is an illness that young children get, in more medical terms acute self-limited immune-mediated form of vasculitis that primarily affects infants and young children. Kawasaki’s disease, which primarily affects infants and small children, is characterized by a sudden onset of fever, rash, and vasculitis.

Symptoms and Signs

Children with Kawasaki’s disease may have a variety of different symptoms:

Abrupt onset of fever
Nausea
Vomiting
Gallbladder disease
Conjunctivitis affecting both eyes
reddened lips and oral mucosa
rashes
enlarged cervical lymph nodes
And may even have arthritis.

The cause of the Kawasaki disease is unknown, yet if the symptoms are recognized early, kids with Kawasaki disease can fully recover within a few days.

Untreated, it may lead to serious complications like:

Coronary artery aneurysms
Heart attacks
Ischemic heart disease
Coronary thrombosis (blood clots)

Kawasaki’s disease is the most common cause of heart disease in children.

Rashes of Kawasaki disease:

The rash in Kawasaki’s disease, have different forms, though the most commonly form is a nonspecific, diffuse, eruption of flattened papules. The rashes cover the entire body, including the trunk and extremities, and also causing itching. A reddened “strawberry” tongue may also occur.

Causes and Diagnosis

The causes of Kawasaki’s disease remain perplexing. No specific infectious agent has been identified in Kawasaki’s disease, but an infectious trigger is suspected.

There are no specific diagnostic tests available. Kawasaki disease is suspected when the characteristic signs and symptoms being present in small children.

Complication in Diagnosis:

An incomplete form of Kawasaki’s disease, i.e. only a few of the characteristic signs occurs and thus it makes difficult to distinguish from viral as well as Staphylococcus and Sreptococcus infections. Also in past Kawasaki disease was been misdiagnosed as polyarteritis nodosa with reports of old cases appearing identical to fatal cases of Kawasaki’s disease today.

Complications also occur when symptoms show up at different times, sometimes not occurring until the initial abrupt onset of symptoms appears to have resolved.

Treatment:

Treatment consists of aspirin therapy and intravenous immunoglobulin therapy.