Kawasaki's disease, also known as Kawasaki syndrome is an autoimmune disease in which medium-sized blood vessels become inflamed. It was first described in 1967 by Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki in Japan. The disease most often affects children under five years of age.
Symptoms often begin with a high a persistent fever that doesn't respond very well to normal treatment with Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen. This fever can be accompanied by irritability. Other symptoms are: strawberry tongue, anterior uveitis, and tachycardia.
Being an autoimmune disease the cause is presumably the interaction of genetic and environmental factors, possibly including infection.
One of the worst aspects of the disease is that it affects many organ systems, mainly those including the blood vessels, skin, mucous membranes, and lymph nodes; however, its rare but most serious effect is on the heart where it can cause fatal coronary artery aneurysms in untreated children.
The mortality rate without treatment can be 1%. With treatment the mortality rate is less than 0.01%.
In the series, the disease has be mentioned several times. It was part of the possible diseases that Ezra Powell could have in the episode Informed Consent. However, it had not been the final diagnosis until Season 8.
In The Confession the patient has the disease and House and Taub says that it only presents in Asian children. However House points out that certain carpet-cleaning chemicals have been linked to it.
The standard treatment for Kawasaki disease is intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG).