Tumour necrosis factor-α and myoglobin associated with the recovery time of coronary artery lesions in Kawasaki disease patients.

AIM

To assess the relationship between clinical parameters and medium term recovery time of coronary artery lesions (CALs).

METHODS

In total, 344 Kawasaki disease patients were screened and 311 Kawasaki disease patients were included and followed-up for the next 2 years. Clinical records, clinical parameters and inflammatory biomarkers were collected for all subjects.

RESULTS

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α and myoglobin (MYO) levels in patients without recovery from CALs were significantly higher than those without CALs and with recovery from CALs. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that in the high-TNF-α group, the estimated median time to recovery (5.0 months, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.436-8.564) is significantly longer than the low-TNF-α group (2.00 months, 95% CI: 0.633-3.367, P = 0.044). Also, the estimated median time (5.0 months, 95% CI: 1.836-8.164) in the high-MYO group is significantly longer than the low-MYO group (2.00 months, 95% CI: 0.405-3.595, P = 0.002). Cox regression analysis showed independent factors for recovery of CALs included age, left coronary artery to aortic annulus ratio, TNF-α and MYO levels.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that clinical parameters such as age, left coronary artery to aortic annulus ratio, TNF-α and MYO levels associate with medium term recovery time of CALs and could help in the design of a clinical strategy for the surveillance and prevention of late cardiovascular events.