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Published on: September 14, 2010
Epidemiology and Clinical Features of Kawasaki Disease in South Korea, 2012-2014
Gi Beom Kim1, Sohee Park, Lucy Youngmin Eun
1From the *Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University Children's Hospital, Seoul, South Korea; †Department of Biostatistics, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea; ‡Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University Severance Hospital, Seoul, South Korea; §Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea; ¶Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, South Korea; ‖Department of Pediatrics, Kyung Hee University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea; **Department of Pediatrics, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea; ††Department of Pediatrics, Bundang Jesaeng General Hospital, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea; and ‡‡Department of Pediatrics, The Catholic University of Korea, Daejeon, South Korea.
Background:
To reveal the recent epidemiologic features of Kawasaki disease (KD) in South Korea based on data from a nationwide survey.
Methods:
We collected data between 2012 and 2014 regarding the incidence, symptoms and signs, treatment trends and coronary complications associated with acute KD by sending questionnaires to 97 hospitals with pediatric residency programs as well as 19 community hospitals without residency training.
Results:
We received full and partial data from 97 and 13 hospitals, respectively (response rate: 94.8%). A total of 14,916 cases of KD were reported by these 110 hospitals (4588 in 2012, 5183 in 2013 and 5145 in 2014). The male-to-female ratio was 1.4:1, and the median age at diagnosis was 29 months. The incidence of KD per 100,000 children younger than 5 years of age were 170.9, 194.9 and 194.7 in 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively. The recurrence rate was 4.7%. KD occurred more frequently during summer (especially June and July) and winter (December and January) seasons. Intravenous immunoglobulin was administered to 95.4% of the patients, and the nonresponder rate for the first intravenous immunoglobulin was 11.8%. Coronary aneurysm occurred in 1.7% of the patients, and giant aneurysm developed in 19 patients (0.16%) during the 3 years. One patient had myocardial infarction and 1 patient died of suspected coronary aneurysm rupture.
Conclusions:
The incidence of KD in South Korea increased to 194.7 per 100,000 children younger than 5 years in 2014; meanwhile, the coronary aneurysm rate decreased to 1.7%.
