An autopsied case of an elementary school boy with sudden death four years after Kawasaki disease: on the problem of present method of cardiac mass screening of school children

Abstract

An 8 year-old boy died suddenly 4 years after the onset of Kawasaki disease. He was examined by a cardiac mass screening for school children one and a half year before the death, and was evaluated as having no sequela of Kawasaki disease. The autopsy showed coronary arterial aneurysms and obstruction with fresh and old myocardial infarction. One of the problems of the present method for cardiac mass screening for school children is that it is performed only with history taking, physical findings and electrocardiograms. This method is completely insufficient to find out coronary involvement as a sequela of Kawasaki disease. All the children with history of Kawasaki disease should be examined by two dimensional echocardiography, which is the most sensitive and specific noninvasive method to detect the coronary involvement in our experience.