Kawasaki disease results in inflammation in the medium-sized artery walls in the entire body of a patient. The problem mainly affects kids and that too below 5 years age. Inflammation in this case tends to affect one’s blood vessels or coronary arteries i.e. blood vessels responsible for the blood supply to one’s heart muscles. In some cases, doctors call it as as Mucocutaneous lymph node type of syndrome, as the problem affects your skin, lymph nodes and mucous membranes present in your nose, mouth and throat.
According to the analysis of doctors, Kawasaki disease is the prime cause related to the acquired heart problem in large numbers of kids. However, if you undergo effective treatment for your children, they will experience lasting damage only a few percentage. Common heart complications related to kawasaki disease include-
- Blood vessels inflammation or vasculitis, which usually takes place in the coronary arteries responsible to supply blood towards your heart
- Myocarditis or heart muscle inflammation
- Problems in cardiovascular valves or heart valves
Either of the mentioned complications may cause damage to the heart of your child. In addition, coronary arteries inflammation results in bulging and weakening of the artery walls i.e. aneurysm. Aneurysm further boosts the risk related to clotting of blood resulting in artery blockage. Because of this, kawasaki disease indirectly results in heart attack and/or life-threatening type of internal bleeding. (2)
Who Is At Risk For Kawasaki Disease?
Risk For Kawasaki Disease According To Location/Country
Kawasaki disease has its universal distribution and is usually present in children belonging to different countries and ethnicities across the world. kawasaki disease prevalence is relatively high in various countries of Asia, like Japan, where you will find the annual rate of incidence increased to 264 per 100,000 kids. Even the reports revealed that the incidence related to Kawasaki Disease reach to its peak in the month of January and June or July, while go to the lowest possible value in the month of October.
Incidence associated with kawasaki disease also remained at its peak value in the United States during the wintertime and during the early time of spring season. Even you will find a relatively high risk among the kids of Taiwan and Korea with 66 and 134 respectively from the total 100,000 children belonging to age group between 0year and 5years. On the other side, non-Asian countries children showed significantly low prevalence with only 8.4 per 100,000 kids in England and 9.4 of them in various cities of Australia. (1)
Risk For Kawasaki Disease Because Of Genetic Factors
Latest evidence strongly revealed that genetic factors have a significant role in the prevalence or occurrence of Kawasaki Disease. Polymorphisms present in the IgG receptor are responsible to increase the susceptibility of the problem in kawasaki disease patients and in turn, increases the risks related to the development of coronary artery type of aneurysm. You will find high prevalence of the disease among kids of Asian countries, like Taiwan, Korea and Japan than any non-Asian country. Indeed, the facts highlight a strong genetic-based susceptibility according to the ethnicity. Japanese American kids staying in Hawaii also showed a higher incidence rate equal 210 per 100,000 as compared to only 13 per 100,000 kids of Caucasian American areas staying in Hawaii. Along with this, doctors and medical experts have reported several other genome-wide relations analysis related to kawasaki disease. (1)
Other Factors To Determine Risks For Kawasaki Disease
Along with the aforementioned aspects to determine the risk related to Kawasaki disease, you will find various other factors responsible to determine the kawasaki disease risk. These include-
- Age factor i.e. children below 5 years age remain at relatively higher risk to develop Kawasaki disease.
- Secondly, boys are relatively more prone to suffer or develop kawasaki disease as compared to girls.
References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6374576/
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/kawasaki-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20354598
Also Read:
- Natural Remedies For Kawasaki Disease
- What Is The Most Likely Cause Of Kawasaki Disease?
- Is There An Alternative Treatment For Kawasaki Disease?
- How Many People Have Died From Kawasaki Disease?
- What Triggers Kawasaki Disease & What’s The Recurrence Rate?
- How Do You Treat Kawasaki Disease?
- How To Cope With Kawasaki Disease?
