Increased plasma endothelin-1 concentration in Kawasaki disease

We compared the variation in plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels by the sandwich-enzyme RIA method during each of the clinical stages of Kawasaki disease, a systemic vasculitis occurring in children (30 cases, ages 4-62 months) and examined whether ET-1 could be a clinical parameter for predicting coronary artery dilatation. The results revealed that the ET-1 level in the acute stage was higher than that in the recovery stage, the chronic stage, or in healthy controls (3.46 +/- 1.22 versus 2.20 +/- 0.56, 1.55 +/- 0.52, and 1.57 +/- 0.45 pg/ml, respectively; p < 0.01). Furthermore, in the acute stage the ET-1 level in the group with coronary artery dilatation (positive group, five cases) increased more than that in the negative group (25 cases) (5.13 +/- 1.64 versus 3.09 +/- 0.70 pg/ml, respectively; p < 0.01). When the ET-1 value was more than 4.5 pg/ml in the acute stage, our prediction for coronary artery dilatation demonstrated a high value in indices of both sensitivity (100%) and specificity (96.1%). Thus, plasma concentration of ET-1 was increased in the acute stage of Kawasaki disease and was very high in patients with coronary artery dilatation. The plasma ET-1 level was considered to be an important factor in predicting the dilatational lesions of the coronary artery in the acute stage of Kawasaki disease.