Peeling skin caused by IVIG or KD?

[jayetty]

Hello,

Last week my 3 yr old son was diagnosed with incomplete (aka atypical) KD and treated with IVIG at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. It took two days for the doctors (who were very good by the way) to decide to diagnose him with KD since he was on the borderline. So I am still trying to figure out if my son really had KD or not. Which leads to my question: my son has started peeling on his palms/fingers, so my question is, has anyone seen a child firsthand with peeling palms/fingers that did not receive any IVIG at all? I know they say peeling palms is a symptom of KD, but when I Google "ivig peeling palms" I see people who have had peeling skin after IVIG, even though they are adults and were not being treated for Kawasaki disease but something else.

So which is it? Does the KD cause peeling skin? Or is it the IVIG? Or, could it be both? Anyone have any insight that may help answer this?

Thank you,

Joe

[Nancy]

hi

Peeling skin is a sign of recovery...with or without IVIG treatment

best
Nancy

[jayetty]

Thanks Nancy. Yes I realize that peeling skin is a symptom that KD kids experience during recovery. But I have read that IVIG in non-KD folks causes peeling skin also. So you see the evidence seems to show two things:

- KD causes peeling skin
- IVIG without KD causes peeling skin

What I am trying to determine is: is it possible my son did not have KD even though he has peeling skin? I think the answer could be "yes".

You see all along no one seemed really sure my son had KD even though they treated him for it. But honestly, I would really like to know for certain if my son had a potentially deadly disease or not. When I saw the peeling skin I finally thought "aha! the first symptom he has had that seems very unique to KD! So he probably did have it!" Then I googled "IVIG peeling skin" and behold, folks without KD get peeling skin from IVIG. So it seems that peeling skin proves nothing...since it could have been the IVIG causing the peeling skin.

[Nancy]

hi

Since the cause of KD remains unknown...there is no absolute test to say any child does or doesn't have KD

The only "proof" is in a child who shows coronary artery aneurysms on echocardiogram.

Better to treat "borderline" KD than to have cardiac issues a few weeks later !

best
Nancy

[jayetty]

Yes, I guess I didn't mean I wanted "proof". I just wanted to look for anything that may show a greater or lesser chance that he had KD. I agree that treating is better than not treating, if unsure.

I guess there are too many unanswered questions to know much at this point...