- Zandstra, Judith;
- van de Geer, Annemarie;
- Tanck, Michael WT;
- van Stijn-Bringas Dimitriades, Diana;
- Aarts, Cathelijn EM;
- Dietz, Sanne M;
- van Bruggen, Robin;
- Schweintzger, Nina A;
- Zenz, Werner;
- Emonts, Marieke;
- Zavadska, Dace;
- Pokorn, Marko;
- Usuf, Effua;
- Moll, Henriette A;
- Schlapbach, Luregn J;
- Carrol, Enitan D;
- Paulus, Stephane;
- Tsolia, Maria;
- Fink, Colin;
- Yeung, Shunmay;
- Shimizu, Chisato;
- Tremoulet, Adriana;
- Galassini, Rachel;
- Wright, Victoria J;
- Martinón-Torres, Federico;
- Herberg, Jethro;
- Burns, Jane;
- Levin, Michael;
- Kuijpers, Taco W;
- Consortium, PERFORM Consortium and UK Kawasaki Disease Genetics Study Network EUCLIDS
Background: Kawasaki disease (KD) is a vasculitis of early childhood mimicking several infectious diseases. Differentiation between KD and infectious diseases is essential as KD's most important complication-the development of coronary artery aneurysms (CAA)-can be largely avoided by timely treatment with intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG). Currently, KD diagnosis is only based on clinical criteria. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether routine C-reactive protein (CRP) and additional inflammatory parameters myeloid-related protein 8/14 (MRP8/14 or S100A8/9) and human neutrophil-derived elastase (HNE) could distinguish KD from infectious diseases. Methods and Results: The cross-sectional study included KD patients and children with proven infections as well as febrile controls. Patients were recruited between July 2006 and December 2018 in Europe and USA. MRP8/14, CRP, and HNE were assessed for their discriminatory ability by multiple logistic regression analysis with backward selection and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves. In the discovery cohort, the combination of MRP8/14+CRP discriminated KD patients (n = 48) from patients with infection (n = 105), with area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.88. The HNE values did not improve discrimination. The first validation cohort confirmed the predictive value of MRP8/14+CRP to discriminate acute KD patients (n = 26) from those with infections (n = 150), with an AUC of 0.78. The second validation cohort of acute KD patients (n = 25) and febrile controls (n = 50) showed an AUC of 0.72, which improved to 0.84 when HNE was included. Conclusion: When used in combination, the plasma markers MRP8/14, CRP, and HNE may assist in the discrimination of KD from both proven and suspected infection.