[Kawasaki syndrome]

Kawasaki disease or mucocutaneous lymph-node syndrome has been described in Japan in 1967. Diagnostic criteria are clinical. The diagnosis must be evoked when a child less than 5-year-old has fever lasting for 5 days or more, particularly if associated with conjonctivitis, cheilitis, rash, or adenomegaly. Kawasaki disease is a vasculitis and can lead to lesions of the coronary arteries which are more frequent in younger infants. Intravenous gammaglobulins (in the first 10 days) lower the frequency of coronary lesions. Aetiology is still unknown but recent advances support the hypothesis that bacterial superantigens are involved.