Epidemiological Clinical Characteristics Of Kawasaki Disease In Chongqing

Background: KD is an acute febrile illness with multisystem vasculitis of infancy and early childhood-onset that is associated with myocarditis and coronary artery abnormalities. Despite the widely held belief that KD is caused by an infection agent or is an autoimmune response to an infection agent, considerable controversy remains over its aetiology. Most authors now think that KD is now one of the most common causes of cardiovascular acquired disease. First case of KD was found by Dr Tomisaku Kawasaki in Japan in1961, and then he first reported 50 KD patients in 1967.There are also KD patients reported in other country and region.Toidentify the aetiology of KD, epidemiologic survey of KD was carried out by Kawaski Disease Research Committee in Japan every two years. Up to now, the epidemiologic surveys have been conducted 16 times inJapan. The investigation suggests that the incidence rate be highest in Japan. Among the world the first case of KD was reported in China in 1976, and then there are more and more KD patients found in our country during these years. The epidemiologic survey of KD has been conducted in a few of provinces and metropolitans in our country, such as Beijing, Shanxi province, Harbin, Hongkong, et al. The epidemiologic survey has not been conducted in Chongqing; the incident rate of KD is higher in these cities near Yangtz River, like Chongqing, than that of other cities in China, so it is emergency to have epide-characteristics of KD in Chongqing. Objective:Objective of this paper is to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Kawasaki disease (KD) in Chongqing district of China during a 5-year-periord from January 1997 to December 2001.Methods:A metropolitan-wide epidemiological survey on KD was carried out by China-Japan Kawasaki disease study group. The questionaire form and the diagnostic criteria of KD were prepared by the group and translated into Chinese, and sent to 120 hospitals with pediatric ward. All patients, meeting the KD diagnostic criteria of Japan Kawasaki Disease Research Committee during the period from 1997 to 2001, were involved . Results: (1)A total of 116 hospitals responded and there are 1100 cases of KD in the 5 years in Changing area, 61.17% patients were under 3 years old and the ratio of male to female is 1.66; (2)The proportion of patients with cardiac sequelae, mainly coronary artery dilated and aneurysm, was 9.52% and the ratio of male to female is 1.92; (3) The incidence rate is the highest in the children with KD between 1 year and 2 years.(4) There is no death reported during the period; (5) There are more KD patients in March to July than that of other months. (6)The patients mainly distributed in urban areas. Conclusion:There are more KD patients found in urban that of in Chongqing. The cardiac sequelae of KD took place mainly in young children, so it's one of common causes of acquired cardiovascular disease in children in our country. It is important to maintain high wareness of KD, diagnosis and treatment as early as possible to reduce the incidence and cardiovaslar complications.