The pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease / 中国小儿急救医学

ABSTRACT

Kawasaki disease is an acute systemic vascular inflammatory syndrome, which is the main cause of acquired heart disease in children.It is most likely to cause serious complications such as coronary artery dilation, coronary artery aneurysm, and acute myocardial infarction.At present, there is no accurate conclusion about the etiology and pathogenic mechanism of Kawasaki disease.We performed this review to realize the etiology of Kawasaki disease regarding infectious pathogens, environmental factors, immune disorders and genetic tendencies.Meanwhile, this study will focus on the abnormal activation of the immune system, the up-regulated expression of inflammatory cytokines, the increased activity of metal matrix proteinases (MMPs), and vascular endothelial injury/vascular endothelial dysfunction to review the pathogenic mechanism of Kawasaki disease.