Aortic Inflammation Continues in Patients With A History of Kawasaki Disease and Persistent Arterial Aneurysms

Introduction: Kawasaki disease (KD) is well known vasculitis that primarily affects small to middle sized arteries such as coronary arteries and/or peripheral arteries. However, little evidence showed inflammation of large vasculature such as the aorta in patients with KD. Measurements of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake evaluated by positron emission tomography (PET) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) could be useful to identify inflammatory activity of the vessel wall. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that aortic inflammation continues long after KD. Methods: FDG-PET/CT was performed in 19 patients with a history of KD. Of 19 patients, 11 patients still had persistent coronary and/or systemic vascular aneurysms (KD-An) and the remaining 8 revealed regression of arterial aneurysms (KD-Reg). Patients suffered from KD at 2.8 ± 3.2 years old and underwent FDG-PET at 22.2 ± 8.0 years old. FDG-PET was also performed in 5 control with age 14.1 ± 2.6 years old. Vascular inflammation was measured by blood-normaliz...