They showed that the transcript patterns during the acute phase of the disease varied dramatically with day of illness, and that differences in expression patterns between patients were associated with clinical parameters that physicians have used to manage and make predictions about the course of the disease. Patients who showed higher expression levels of specific transcripts (e.g., carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1; CEACAM1) were less likely to respond to intravenous immunoglobulin, a highly effective but poorly understood treatment for preventing coronary artery aneurysms and reducing fever in Kawasaki disease.

This work contributes to our understanding of how the disease develops, how the treatment works, and how doctors might identify patients who are candidates for other therapies.

Article:
Gene-expression patterns reveal underlying biological processes in Kawasaki disease Stephen J Popper, Chisato Shimizu, Hiroko Shike, John T Kanegaye, Robert P Sundel, Jane W Newburger, Patrick O Brown,
Jane C Burns and David A Relman
Genome Biology (in press)

During embargo, article available at: http://genomebiology.com/imedia/1065120563137940_article.pdf?random=50636

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