Natriuretic peptide as an adjunctive diagnostic test in the acute phase of Kawasaki disease.

Coronary arteritis rather than myocardial involvement is typically emphasized in Kawasaki disease (KD). Moreover, the criteria and the usual biological markers oversee the importance of cardiac-specific markers in diagnosing this disease. We sought to study the clinical usefulness of measuring B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and its N-terminal moiety (NT-proBNP) at the onset of KD.