THE STUDY OF SELECTIVE DECREASED SERUM IGG4 IN THE ACUTE PHASE OF KAWASAKI DISEASE

Minshik Kim1, Yoonhwa Cha1, Kyungsook Kim2

1Department of Pediatrics, 2Department of Clinicopathology*

Objectives: The study was performed to investigate the levels of IgG subclasses in the acute febrile phage of Kawasaki disease (KD) before intravenous gammaglobulin therapy to find correlations between selective IgG4 deficiency and the incidence of KD patients.

Methods: The patients group consisted of 114 cases were diagnosed with KD in the acute phase from Jan. 1995 to Dec. 2000. The control group consisted of 67 aged matched cases admitted for other conditions than KD. The sera from both groups were obtained, and the levels of total IgG, IgM IgA and IgG subclasses (IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, IgG4) were measured using the EIA and ELISA methods.

Results: The sex ratio of male to female was 1.4:1.0, and mean febrile days before admission was 4.6+/-2.4 days in the patients group. Total levels of IgG, IgM and IgA were no significance between both groups (P >0.05).

The levels of IgG1, IgG2 and IgG3 did not present significant differencies between the two groups. However, the level of serum IgG4 was significantly decreased in the patient group as compared with the control group (P <0.05).

Conclusions: Selective decreased levels of serum IgG4 can be one important factor that may increase the incidence of KD.

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