Question

Discussion #4: The following is the official case definition for Kawasaki Syndrome that is recommended by CDC: Kawasaki Syndrome Clinical case definition A febrile illness of greater than or equal to 5 days’ duration, with at least four of the five following physical findings and no other more reasonable explanation for the observed clinical findings: •Bilateral conjunctival injection •Oral changes (erythema of lips or oropharynx, strawberry tongue, or fissuring of the lips) •Peripheral extremity changes (edema, erythema, or generalized or periungual desquamation) •Rash •Cervical lymphadenopathy (at least one lymph node greater than or equal to 1.5 cm in diameter) Laboratory criteria for diagnosis None Case classification Confirmed: a case that meets the clinical case definition Comment If fever disappears after intravenous gamma globulin therapy is started, fever may be of less than 5 days’ duration, and the clinical case definition may still be met 1. Discuss the pros and cons of this case definition for the purposes listed below. a. diagnosing and treating individual patients b. tracking the occurrence of the disease for public health records c. doing research to identify the cause of the disease

Answer 1

1a) PROS: early detection of this disease can prevent the coronary artery diseases.and vascularities

CONS; the patient require life long pharmacological therephy and follow up and in every year diagnostic test like Echo cardiography and ECG.

b) PROS:we can store the records and it can be useful for future research and can spread awareness about the disease among .the people.

CONS: if the tracking is not proper then it could be difficult to do analysis about the disease and comparison of yearly data would be difficult.

c)PROS: research can help toi dentitfy the different cause of etiology like family history and epidermical causes etc.

CONS: improper reasearch can affect the patient's treatment and can give a wrong awareness to community