Circulation Journal
Online ISSN : 1347-4820
Print ISSN : 1346-9843
ISSN-L : 1346-9843
Pediatric Cardiology and Adult Congenital Heart Disease
Circulating Platelet-Neutrophil Aggregates Play a Significant Role in Kawasaki Disease
Kentaro UenoYuichi NomuraYasuko MoritaTaisuke EguchiKiminori MasudaYoshifumi Kawano
Author information
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTML

2015 Volume 79 Issue 6 Pages 1349-1356

Details
Abstract

Background:Circulating platelet-neutrophil aggregates play a crucial role in amplifying acute inflammation and could promote adverse effects involving vascular injury. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of platelet-neutrophil aggregates in Kawasaki disease (KD).Methods and Results:Forty patients with KD (30 intravenous immunoglobulin [IVIG] responders and 10 IVIG non-responders), 7 febrile patients with bacterial infections, and 9 normal volunteers were analyzed. Thirty-three patients with KD were treated with IVIG, and 7 were treated with IVIG plus prednisolone. We evaluated the rate of platelet-neutrophil aggregates and measured the platelet factor 4 (PF4) and β-thromboglobulin (β-TG) levels. The rate of platelet-neutrophil aggregates was significantly higher in patients with KD than those with bacterial infection and normal volunteers. The rate of platelet-neutrophil aggregates was significantly higher in patients with coronary artery abnormalities (CAA) than in those without CAA, and was correlated with PF4 and β-TG levels in patients with KD. Comparing time-course analysis, the rate of platelet-neutrophil aggregates was significantly decreased in patients treated with IVIG plus prednisolone than in those treated with IVIG alone.Conclusions:The findings demonstrate that platelet-neutrophil aggregates are significantly present in higher rates and are closely related to pathological developments of CAA in KD. Additional prednisolone treatment for patients in the acute phase of KD could suppress platelet-neutrophil aggregates, indicating that platelet-neutrophil aggregates would inhibit amplified reciprocal vascular inflammatory activation. (Circ J 2015; 79: 1349–1356)

Content from these authors
© 2015 THE JAPANESE CIRCULATION SOCIETY
Previous article Next article
feedback
Top