Red blood cells as bioindicators of cardiovascular risk in Kawasaki disease: A case report

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a rare systemic vasculitis typical of theearly childhood. It is characterized by small- and medium-sized bloodvessel inflammation that can also lead to coronary artery weakening,aneurysmformation,andmyocardialinfarction.Therapywithimmuno-globulinandaspirinaimstoreducecoronaryarteryinflammation.How-ever, it has been hypothesized that, notwithstanding the efficacy of thepharmacological therapy, patients with regressed KD are at increasedrisk to develop atherosclerosis after the acute illness.In this work, the case of a 17-month-old child with KD was studied.The patient was recruited from the Bambino Gesu Hospital of Rome(Italy). Diagnosis of KD was based on the standard clinical criteria [1].The study was conducted at admission of the patient (naive patient)and at follow-up. Five age-matched healthy donors (HD) were usedforeachtimepointascontrols.Informedconsentbyparentswasobtain-ed.This study was approved from theInstitutional Review Board of the“Bambino Gesu” Hospital of Rome, Italy.At admission, the patient reported fever since 5 days, and hadurticar-ial, a non-purulent conjunctivitis, cheilitis and a hyper-echogenicity ofcoronary arteries without dilatation. Laboratory analyses showed: redblood cell (RBC) and platelet counts in the normal range (4.26 · 10