Background: Kawasaki Disease (KD) is considered a major acquired heart disease in children under the age of 5. Coronary artery aneurysm (CAA) can occur in serious cases despite extreme therapy efforts. Previous studies have reported low serum albumin level was associated with disease outcome, but no further investigation was addressed yet. Method: This retrospective (case-control) study randomly included children with KD who were admitted and underwent laboratory tests before undergoing IVIG treatment in this institution, the largest tertiary medical center in southern Taiwan from 2012 to 2016. Prognostic nutrition index (PNI), an albumin-based formula product, was evaluated as a predictor of CAA the first time. The progression of CAA was monitored using serial echocardiography for six months. We performed multivariable logistic regression analysis on the laboratory test and PNI with the disease outcome of the KD patients. Result: Of the 275 children, 149 had CAA, including transient dilatation, while the other 126 did not develop CAA during the 6-month follow-up period. A multivariate logistic regression model revealed that PNI, gender, IVIG non-responder, and platelet count are significant predictors of CAA with a 95% confidence interval estimator of 1.999, 3.058, 3.864 and 1.004, respectively. Using PNI to predict CAA presence gave an area under the receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) curve of 0.596. For a cutoff of 0.5 in the logistic regression model and the PNI cut-off point is taken as 55 together with IVIG non-responder, boy gender, and platelet count take into account, sensitivity and specificity were 65.7 and 70.4%. Conclusion: PNI could be a candidate of adjunctive predictor of coronary artery aneurysm in addition to IVIG non-responder. Together with low PNI, IVIG non-responder, male gender and platelet count will give high odds to predict coronary artery aneurysm within 6 months of illness.

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a febrile systemic vasculitis that mainly affects children aged under five years old. The aneurysm formation of the coronary artery is the most common complication after KD. We report a case with multiple coronary aneurysm formation and a special pattern ofbeaded aneurysm after KD and review the form ofcoronary aneurysms in different diseases.

Background: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in early adulthood (80–100 per 100,000 children under 5 years of age) of Kawasaki disease.Methods: We conducted a multicenter, retrospective study by reviewing medical records and angiographic data from two institutions (middle and southern Taiwan, respectively) of adults <40 years of age who underwent coronary angiography for clinically suspected acute coronary syndrome (2009–2019). Angiographic images were independently analyzed by three cardiologists who were blinded to the medical records. Demographic and laboratory data and risk factors of coronary artery disease were integrated to assess the likelihood of antecedent KD.Results: All 323 young adults underwent coronary angiography, and 27 had coronary aneurysms. The patients’ clinical and angiographic characteristics were evaluated, and 7.4% had aneurysms likely to be associated with KD. Most subjects were male (23/24), and their low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels were significantly higher (p = 0.028) than those of subjects unlikely to have KD.Conclusion: This study proposed that the cohort with higher Kawasaki disease incidence rates may have a higher prevalence of young adult ACS associated with antecedent KD. The importance of determining the clinical therapeutic significance of antecedent Kawasaki disease in young adult ACS warrants advanced research. Higher LDL levels may have a long-term cardiovascular impact in KD patients with persistent coronary aneurysms.

Background: Kawasaki Disease (KD) is considered a major acquired heart disease in children under the age of 5. Coronary artery lesions (CAL) can occur in serious cases despite extreme therapy efforts. Previous studies have reported low serum albumin level was associated with disease outcome, but no further investigation was addressed yet. Method: This retrospective (case-control) study randomly included children with KD who were admitted and underwent laboratory tests before undergoing IVIG treatment in this institution, the largest tertiary medical center in southern Taiwan from 2012-2016. PNI, an albumin-based formula product, was evaluated as a predictor of CAL the first time. The progression of CAL was monitored using serial echocardiography for six months. We performed multivariable logistic regression analysis on the laboratory test and PNI with the disease outcome of the KD patients. Result: Of the 284 children, 158 had CAL, including transient dilatation, while the other 126 did not develop CAL during the 6-month follow-up period. A multivariate logistic regression model revealed that PNI and platelet count are significant predictors of CAL with a 95% confidence interval estimator of 2.532 (1.394-4.599) and1.004 (1.002-1.006), respectively. Using PNI to predict CAL presence gave an area under the receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) curve of 0.596, and the PNI cut-off point is taken as 55.24, with a sensitivity of 0.509 and specificity of 0.678. Conclusion: This is the first study to demonstrate that PNI, an albumin-based formula product, is a useful index with clearly cut-off value for predicting CAL formation prior to initial IVIG therapy and thus warn clinicians to adopt aggressive therapeutic and coronary arteries imaging surveillance strategies before CAL can develop.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the rotation and torsion in the endocardial, epicardial, and global myocardium using two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging(2D-STI) in patients with rheumatic heart disease who underwent aortic valve replacement (AVR). Methods: This study included 42 AVR patients [(23 F/19 M, aged (62.7±11.2) years] and 25 normal control [(16 F/9 M, aged (63.3±10.5) years]. 2D-STI was performed in five consecutive heart beats, and data were stored for offline analysis using Q-Lab. The peak systolic rotation of the endocardial, epicardial, and global myocardium in the left ventricular basal and apical walls were measured using 2D-STI. The torsion and twisting angles of the sub-endocardial, sub-epicardial, and global myocardium were calculated. Results: Rotation at the left ventricular basal level of the study group was not significantly reduced compared with that in the normal control group. However, at the apical level, rotation was significantly reduced (p=0.03, 0.003, 0.004). The torsion angle of the study group was significantly reduced compared with that of the normal control group (p=0.006, 0.003, 0.003). Furthermore, patients with different left ventricular ejection function after AVR showed differences in torsion of the endocardial, epicardial, and global myocardium. Conclusions: The systolic rotation and twist of the subendocardial, sub-epicardial, and global myocardium in the left ventricle were reduced, whereas those at the basal level remained unchanged. After AVR, old patients have an almost complete recovery of left ventricular rotational motion at the basal level. 2D-STI is a useful non-invasive tool for evaluation of the left ventricular regional function.