Corticosteroids don't improve Kawasaki disease treatment

The standard treatment for Kawasaki disease, the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children, is aspirin and intravenous immunoglobulin. A study published in the October 2005 issue of Pediatrics which looked at worldwide research found that adding corticosteroids to the standard treatment significantly reduced the risk of children with Kawasaki disease for developing heart damage.

However, a study published in the February 15, 2007, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has failed to find any benefit in adding the corticosteroid methylprednisolone (Solu-Medrol) to the usual treatment for Kawasaki disease. The multicenter study, conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School, divided children with Kawasaki disease into two treatment groups. Both groups received aspirin and intravenous immunoglobulin, but one group was given methylprednisolone and the other a sugar pill (placebo). The researchers found the two groups had similar numbers of days spent in the hospital, numbers of days of fever, rates of re-treatment with immune globulin, and numbers of complications.