Recent studies have revealed that atherosclerosis progresses faster than expected in young adults with a history of Kawasaki disease. However, it is unclear as to when these arterial changes become measurable. In this study, we evaluated subclinical arterial stiffness in young children with a history of Kawasaki disease using two-dimensional ultrasound speckle tracking.

A total of 75 children with a history of Kawasaki disease (mean age, 8.2 ± 2.8 years) and 50 healthy controls (mean age 8.3 ± 3.5 years) were included. The two regions of interest for speckle tracking were manually positioned at the anterior and posterior carotid arterial wall using a Philips iE33 (Philips Medical Systems, Bothell, WA, USA). The peak systolic strain, time to peak systolic strain, early systolic strain rate, and late systolic strain rate were continuously monitored between the two regions of interest. Furthermore, the intimal-medial thickness, stiffness β, and pressure-elastic modulus, as conventional measures of arterial stiffness, were concurrently obtained.

The peak systolic strain and late systolic strain rate differed significantly between the patients with Kawasaki disease and controls (6.69% versus 8.60%, p < 0.01, and −0.28/second versus −0.51/second, p < 0.0001, respectively). There was no difference in the time to peak systolic strain, early systolic strain rate, and conventional measures.

The arteries of patients with Kawasaki disease appear to develop mild sclerotic changes shortly after the onset of the disease.