Atypical Kawasaki Disease after COVID-19 Vaccination: A New Form of Adverse Event Following Immunization

Abstract

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a medium-vessel vasculitis that is typically presented during childhood; fewer than 100 cases of KD have been reported worldwide in adult patients who met the criteria according to the American College of Rheumatology. This study presents the case of an 18-year-old patient with no previous history of any disease, who presented atypical KD with liver and kidney dysfunction, with a good response to intravenous immunoglobulin therapy. The symptoms began 22 days after the application of the COVID-19 vaccine (nonreplicating viral vector Vaxzevria), and other conditions were ruled out. The term Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI)encompasses all the reactions that follow the application of any vaccine with no necessary causal relationship and can be due to the vaccine product, quality of the vaccine, immunization errors, or anxiety or just happen to be coincident events. These reactions should be reported so that clinicians can identify compatible cases and consider that the presentation of this disease, despite being atypical, can be manifested in adult patients. Likewise, case reports are an important basis for the pharmacovigilance of vaccines.

Keywords

• Kawasaki disease
• medium vessels
• vasculitis
• AEFI
• COVID-19 vaccine
• SARS-CoV-2