Aussie professor discovers danger gene for deadly Kawasaki disease

Aussie professor discovers danger gene for deadly Kawasaki disease
Aussie professor discovers danger gene for deadly Kawasaki disease
Posted Sat Jan 10, 2009 12:03pm AEDT

The researchers identified genes which could make some children more susceptible. (ABC News)......
An Australian researcher says he has made a breakthrough which could lead to a diagnostic test and better treatment for the potentially fatal Kawasaki disease.The illness is an inflammatory condition in young children that can damage blood vessels.There are up to 200 cases in Australia each year.A team of researchers led by University of Western Australia Professor David Burgner studied almost 900 cases around the world and has identified genes which could make some children more susceptible.Lily Allen was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease before she was two months old.She is now fully recovered, but Lily's mother Amanda says they had to wait several agonising days before a diagnosis could be made."That was the hard thing, we knew nothing of it and it just took so long to actually diagnose it, which was hard," she said. "It emotionally and physically takes its toll on you. You wonder why your baby's so sick and her heart rate was at 180 at rest, so she was constantly in pain and having trouble breathing."Named after the professor who first described it, Kawasaki disease usually affects children aged from six months to four years.The symptoms include fever, rash, swollen hands and feet, and peeling skin.Kawasaki disease also inflames blood vessels and can cause permanent damage to the heart.Professor Burgner says the disease can be difficult to diagnose."It's often mistaken for Measles or severe infections, scarlet fever or even sometimes meningitis," he said. "So this is a mysterious but very serious disease of young children."Like many diseases we think that genetics plays a major role in deciding or determining who actually develops Kawasaki disease. "And we think this because if Japanese children move to America which has a relatively low rate, their risk remains as high as it would be if they were in Japan. "And the risk of brothers and sisters who have had Kawasaki disease is about 10 times the risk of the general population."So we think that genes are going to be important in determining who actually develops Kawasaki disease when they're exposed to whatever it is that's triggering this illness," he added.Professor Burgner says the findings are an important first step in understanding the disease."Ultimately we'd like to develop a diagnostic test, that's really what the paediatricians are crying out for - a bedside or a diagnostic test for Kawasaki disease, because it's a very difficult diagnosis to make sometimes," he said. "We need better treatment because our best treatment actually fails in 5 to 10 per cent of cases to prevent damage to the heart. "It's not inconceivable. In the future we may be able to develop a vaccine to prevent Kawasaki disease and maybe that will have some impact on future risk of heart attack and things like that.Based on report by David Weber for PM Friday january 9, 2009.