SAN DIEGO — Long-term survivors of Kawasaki disease with or without a history of coronary aneurysms had no evidence of accelerated carotid atherosclerosis, results from a controlled, multicenter study have shown.
“Discussion of these findings with patients and their families may be helpful in preventing unwarranted psychological effects,” Dorota Gruber said at an international Kawasaki disease symposium. “The need for unusual or frequent serum screenings has not been established.”
For the study, led by Rubin S. Cooper, M.D., director of pediatric cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, investigators assessed 28 Kawasaki disease patients at least 5 years removed from the acute phase of their disease and compared them with 27 age- and gender-matched controls.
Methods included taking a medical, family, dietary, and smoking history; doing a clinical examination of Kawasaki disease; performing a thoracic echocardiogram; conducting a cardiac ultrasound; and assessing serum markers of atherosclerotic risk.
There were no differences between the two groups in terms of age, gender, race, body mass index, blood pressure, cigarette smoking, family history, and diet, reported Ms. Gruber, a clinical research coordinator at the hospital.
Traditional serum markers for atherosclerotic risk such as LDL and HDL levels were also similar between the two groups, she said at the symposium, sponsored by the American Heart Association.
Males in the Kawasaki disease group had significantly higher levels of cystatin C and apolipoprotein B, compared with males in the control group, but these levels were still within the normal range. Males in the Kawasaki disease group also had a higher median body mass index than males in the control group (24 kg/m2 vs. 21 kg/m2, respectively).
Investigators observed no differences in carotid intima-medial thickness or ventricular size and function between cases and controls.