Coronary artery abnormality, treatment failure reduced with combination therapy in Kawasaki disease

The addition of corticosteroids to standard treatment for patients with Kawasaki disease reduced the risk for coronary artery abnormalities by an estimated 47% and treatment failure by 35%, according to a study in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

In this study, patients with Kawasaki disease were treated with combination treatment (n = 1593) or standard intravenous immunoglobulin treatment (n = 1593). In the treatment group, 4.6% developed coronary artery abnormalities and 14.1% had treatment failure compared with 8.8% and 21.7% in the control group.

The authors concluded that, “Multiple‐dose corticosteroids may provide benefit in selected patients at high risk for Kawasaki disease.”

Reference
Ae R, Abrams JY, Maddox RA, et al. Corticosteroids added to initial intravenous immunoglobulin treatment for the prevention of coronary artery abnormalities in high‐risk patients with Kawasaki disease. JAHA. 2020; https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.015308.