The standard treatment for Kawasaki disease (KD) is high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). Some patients experienced recurrent fever after IVIG following defervescence. However, little is known about the frequency of such episodes and the clinical outcome for such patients. We classified 195 KD patients into 4 groups based on their fever patterns after initial IVIG treatment: group NR (no response), group EF (early recurrent fever within 72 hours after defervescence), group LF (late recurrent fever >72 hours after defervescence), and group GR (good response). We compared the clinical characteristics and laboratory data among these groups retrospectively. Nearly a third of patients had recurrent fever (group EF, n = 45; group LF, n = 11). In two-thirds of these patients, the fever had subsided spontaneously without retreatment; 2 patients in Group LF with smoldering KD symptoms had developed coronary artery lesions (CALs) even after additional IVIG. Recurrent fever and smoldering symptoms might be risk factors for CAL.
Keywords: Kawasaki disease; coronary artery lesion; intravenous immunoglobulin; recurrent fever; smoldering symptoms.