Ankle Brachial Index in the Patients with Kawasaki Disease

Purpose: Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) and Pulse wave velocity (PWV) are useful methods to evaluate the degree of atherosclerosis in adult. It is predicted that history of Kawasaki disease is one of risk factors of atherosclerosis. We examined the ABI and PWV of the patients with history of Kawasaki disease. Methods: We examined 178 patients visited our clinic between March 2001 and November 2001. 66 patients have the history of Kawasaki disease (45 male and 21 female, age 12.5+/-4.9 years, mean +/- sd). 31 patients had had coronary abnormalities now or previously (14.4+/-5.0 years). 35 patients had no coronary abnormalities (10.9+/-4.3 years). 117 patients as a control group have arrhythmia, small VSD and others (51 male and 66 female, 12.5+/-3.9 years). ABI and PWV were measured automatically using form PWV/ABI (Colin Co. Aichi, Japan). Statistic analysis was performed a logistic regression to compare two groups respectively. Results: The ABI value of the patients with history of Kawasaki (1.05+/-0.11) was lower than control groups (1.08+/-0.11, p<0.05). The PWV value of the patients with history of Kawasaki (1223+/-268) was heigher than control groups (1111+/-183, p<0.01). There were no significantly differences about PWV between the patients of history of Kawasaki disease with and without coronary abnormality. But the ABI value of the patients with history of coronary abnomality (1.00+/-0.10) was lower than the patients without history of coronary abnomality(1.09+/-0.11, p<0.05). Conclusion: The patients had low ABI and high PWV values indicate some atherosclerotic changes in the some arteries. The patients of history of Kawasaki disease had low ABI value and high PWV value. This might suggest that the patients of history of Kawasaki, especially the patients with history of coronary abnomality had atherosclerotic changes in some arteries.