High-dose intravenous immunoglobulin downregulates the activated levels of inflammatory indices except erythrocyte sedimentation rate in acute stage of Kawasaki Disease.

We evaluated the effects of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) administration on various protein parameters, including inflammatory profiles, in children with Kawasaki disease (KD). Sixty-three children with KD were treated with IVIG at 2 g/kg over 12 h. Serial examinations of laboratory indices were performed three times: before IVIG treatment, 24 h after IVIG treatment, and 7 days after IVIG treatment.

Inflammatory processes in Kawasaki disease reach their peak at the sixth day of fever onset: laboratory profiles according to duration of fever.

We evaluated the inflammatory indices according to the fever duration in children with Kawasaki disease (KD), and determined duration when the inflammatory processes in KD reach their peak. Children with KD (n=152) were classified into 7 groups according to fever duration: at the third day or earlier (n=20), fourth (n=33), fifth (n=46), sixth (n=15), seventh (n=15), eighth (n=9), and at the ninth day or later after fever onset (n= 14). The levels of various laboratory indices were determined 3 times: before, 24 hr and 7 days after intravenous immunoglobulin administration (2 g/kg).

Epidemiologic study of Kawasaki disease at a single hospital in Daejeon, Korea (1987 through 2000).

Purpose: We evaluated the epidemiology and a range of clinical characteristics in children with Kawasaki disease (KD) in one area of South Korea.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 506 medical records of children with KD, who were admitted at Daejeon St. Mary's Hospital from January 1987 through December 2000.

Roxithromycin treatment of scrub typhus (tsutsugamushi disease) in children.

Background: Although chloramphenicol and doxycycline have been used for the treatment of scrub typhus, a difficulty exists in determining which drug to use in treating children because of such potential complications as aplastic anemia or tooth discoloration. We evaluated the effect of roxithromycin, a macrolide antibiotic, on scrub typhus in children.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 39 children with scrub typhus who were treated with doxycycline (DC), chloramphenicol (CM) or roxithromycin (RM) between 1991 and 2000.

Change of hyperexcitability of hippocampus by cyclosporin A and its modulatory action by fentanyl.

Cyclosporin A is used to treat patients with immune-mediated diseases, chronic diseases requiring organ transplantation, or malignancies. These conditions often require higher cyclosporin A doses, which may be toxic to the central nervous system. Fentanyl is also used in clinical conditions that have a risk of hypoxic neurosusceptibility, which suggests that the drug may be a neuroprotective agonist against brain ischemic injury.