Changes in Kawasaki Disease During 2 Decades at a Single Institution in Daejeon, Korea

BACKGROUND:The goal of this study is to evaluate the changes in the epidemiologic and clinical features of Kawasaki disease (KD) in a period of 20 years. METHODS:We compared the epidemiologic features of 3 KD patient groupsthose admitted from 1987 to 1990 (122 cases), from 1997 to 2000 (137 cases) and from 2007 to 2010 (102 cases). For clinical features, we reviewed the medical records of patients admitted from 1996 to 2000 (141 cases) and from 2006 to 2010 (121 cases). RESULTS:There were a total of 772 KD patients during the study period (mean age27.2 months; male-to-female ratio1.6:1). There were some variations in the mean ages (23.8, 27.8 and 30 months), in the male-to-female ratios (1.9:1, 1.3:1 and 1.8:1) and in the age distributions, including the patients of ages 5 years, but the differences were not statistically significant across the groups. The seasonal distributions were relatively consistent with some variations. In clinical features, the preadmission and total fever durations were shorter (P < 0.001, respectively), and the proportions of incomplete KD tended to increase, and the rates of coronary artery aneurysm tended to decrease in recently admitted patients. CONCLUSIONS:There were no significant changes in the demographic and seasonal features of KD, although the evaluation of the clinical features showed shorter fever duration suggestive of improved identification and treatment of KD over time.