Intravenous Immunoglobulin Nonresponse in Pediatric Patients Treated for Kawasaki Disease at a US Hospital.

OBJECTIVE

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute febrile childhood vasculitis with a predilection for the coronary arteries treated with IVIG. In the United States, scoring systems to identify children at high-risk of persistent fever after initial IVIG treatment are lacking. Our study attempts to identify variables associated with IVIG non-response.

METHODS

Retrospective review of patients ages 0 to 18 admitted to an US academic children's hospital between August 1, 2010, and August 31, 2019, with the diagnosis of acute KD who received IVIG during hospitalization.

RESULTS

A total of 64 patients were included, 73% male and 66% Caucasian with a mean age of 3.67 ± 3.35 years. Forty-eight patients (75%) received 1 dose of IVIG, and 16 (25%) received 2 doses of IVIG. The groups did not differ significantly at baseline. None had coronary artery aneurysms detected during hospitalization. Older age, female sex, Caucasian compared with African American race, leukocytosis, and hyponatremia were associated with a higher likelihood of IVIG non-response but none reached statistical significance. Patients who received ibuprofen (n = 26) were more likely to be IVIG non-responsive (p < 0.05). Aspirin dosing varied but was not predictive of IVIG non-response.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, risk factors to predict IVIG non-response in patients treated for KD were not identified. IVIG non-response was significantly more common in those receiving ibuprofen during the acute treatment phase. Larger studies are needed to validate the association of ibuprofen administration and IVIG non-response in patients with KD.