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Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute inflammatory vasculitis that predominantly occurs in children under 5 years of age.1 It is associated with the development of coronary artery aneurysms (CAA) in 15–25% of untreated cases.2 Standard treatment consists of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) along with aspirin.3 About 15% of patients do not respond to a single dose of IVIG and need retreatment.4 When ongoing signs of active disease are present, methylprednisolone pulses are often administered.5 If there is a lack of response, alternative anti-inflammatory medication such as infliximab or plasmapheresis have been suggested in individual case series.6 ,7 We report, for the first time, the beneficial use of an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA) in relapsing KD.
Case report
A 2-year-old boy was presented with persistent fever, coughing and swollen cervical lymph nodes. The boy's condition had not improved with empirical antibiotic treatment. He developed a rash, conjunctivitis and swollen extremities. Upon admission the …
Footnotes
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Competing interests None.
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Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.