Afebrile Kawasaki disease: A case report

Abstract

Objective: Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute, self-limiting vasculitis and the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children under 5 years old. Despite over 50 years of research, the etiology and long-term prognosis of KD remain unclear.

Case presentation: A 2-year-7-month-old boy presented with all the typical KD symptoms, including conjunctival injection, cracked lips, strawberry tongue, and membranous desquamation of the fingers and toes, but without fever. The patient was admitted with a 9-day history of peeling skin on his fingers, and no history of illness or fever in the past two weeks. Laboratory tests revealed elevated platelet count. An echocardiogram showed normal coronary arteries. The patient was diagnosed with KD and treated with low-dose aspirin and dipyridamole. He was discharged on the third day and showed complete symptom resolution and normal coronary arteries at follow-up.

Conclusions: This case report describes an instance of afebrile KD, emphasizing the need for clinical vigilance and comprehensive assessment for diagnosis and treatment. Afebrile KD poses a diagnostic challenge as fever is a major diagnostic criterion. However, clinicians should consider afebrile KD when other clinical features and laboratory results suggest KD, and initiate appropriate treatment to prevent severe complications like coronary artery lesions. This case underscores the importance of early diagnosis, timely intervention, and multidisciplinary team collaboration for effective management of KD.

Keywords

Kawasaki disease / Early diagnosis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to extend our special thanks to the patients who participated in this study.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTIONS

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

FUNDING

The Hubei Pediatric Alliance Medical Research Project, No. HPAMRP202117.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

INFORMED CONSENT

Obtained.

ETHICS APPROVAL

The Publication Ethics Committee of the Sciedu Press. The journal’s policies adhere to the Core Practices established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

PROVENANCE AND PEER REVIEW

Not commissioned; externally double-blind peer reviewed.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

DATA SHARING STATEMENT

No additional data are available.

OPEN ACCESS

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

COPYRIGHTS

Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s), with first publication rights granted to the journal.

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