Objectives

Children with Kawasaki disease (KD) often develop impaired arterial function. The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility and efficacy of two-dimensional speckle tracking technique (2DSTI) for the evaluation of carotid artery elasticity in children with early-stage KD.

Methods

Children with KD (n = 97), age and sex-matched children with fever (n = 18), and healthy controls (n = 24) were included. Children with KD were subsequently divided into a coronary artery lesion group (CAL group, 27 cases) and a noncoronary artery lesion group (nCAL group, 70 cases) based on the results of echocardiography. The carotid circumferential peak strain (CCS) and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) for the children in each group were measured, and the laboratory indicators for each group were collected.

Results

The CCS of children with KD was lower than that of children with fever and healthy controls (P = .001 and .008), whereas CIMT was not significantly different among the groups. Moreover, the CCS of children in the CAL group was lower than that of children in the nCAL group and healthy controls (P = .001 and .000, respectively), whereas the CIMT of children in the CAL group was higher than that of children in the nCAL group (P = .014). In children with KD, CCS was negatively correlated with C-reactive protein (CRP) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (r = −.419, P = .001; and r = −.305, P = .003). However, CCS was negatively correlated with CRP (r = −.508, P = .007) but not ALT (r = −.176, P = .379) in children in the CAL group.

Conclusion

CCS determined based on 2DSTI can reflect changes in the carotid artery elasticity function in the early stage of KD.