CARDIOLOGY COVID-19 NEWS
Diagnosing Kawasaki Disease
Kawasaki disease , or KD , has no diagnostic test , and the clinical presentation is often similar to that of other febrile childhood illnesses . That ’ s a problem , because of patients who remain undiagnosed , 25 % will develop coronary artery lesions . Children ’ s Hospital Colorado pediatric cardiologist Pei-Ni Jone , MD , and her team are in the early stages of research on specific circulating microRNAs , or miRNAs , that they believe could lead to the development of a test .
miRNAs have been increasingly recognized as an effective biomarker for many pathogenetic states . In fact , Dr . Jone ’ s idea to study miRNAs in Kawasaki disease was sparked by Children ’ s Colorado pediatric cardiologist Shelley Miyamoto , MD , who found miRNAs in cardiomyopathy , single ventricle , and pulmonary hypertension patients . If miRNAs are an effective biomarker for those conditions , then they could likely help differentiate Kawasaki disease from the conditions that have similar clinical presentations .
In a recent paper published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology , Dr . Jone and her team describe a two-year research initiative funded by the American Heart Association . It studied Kawasaki patients and two sets of controls : one set with viral infections and another with bacterial infections . As expected , blood samples from each group revealed that KD patients have a unique miRNA profile , including upregulation of miRNA-210-3p , −184 , and -19a-3p .
Looking ahead , Dr . Jone and her team are currently writing a National Institutes of Health research grant to study that unique miRNA profile and the mechanism of KD . It ’ ll be a two-center study with Children ’ s Colorado and Rady Children ’ s Hospital . Dr . Jone hopes to pinpoint elevated levels of one of the three miRNAs in Kawasaki patients , which could be a definitive biomarker of the disease and the information they need to develop a diagnostic test . •
4 Studies In : Flu Vaccine Uptake
Can hospitals help close the flu vaccination gap ?
Suchitra Rao , MBBS , MSCS , has been keeping an eye on the land down under , and not just because she ’ s an Aussie herself . As a pediatric infectious disease specialist with a research interest in influenza , she ’ s anticipating how this year ’ s flu season might interplay with COVID-19 , and the best place to look has been the part of the world where winter just happened .
6 | CHILDREN ’ S HOSPITAL COLORADO