In memory of Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki from Ying-Hsien Huang in Taiwan
Ying-Hsien, Huang
Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan
Department of Pediatrics
I am Prof. Ying-Hsien Huang from Taiwan. I first met Dr. Kawasaki at the congress of the 4th Congress of Asian Society for Pediatric Research (ASPR) and Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Joint Meeting at Hawaii when I was 34 years-old in 2008. In that time, I studied the pathogenesis of biliary atresia. As a young investigator of Pediatrics, I am luck to a photo with Dr. Kawasaki (below) and he showed his kindness and great smile to me. Although Dr. Kawasaki has discovered Kawasaki disease for more than 50 years, the etiology of Kawasaki disease is still a mystery for Pediatrics. I have to say Dr Kawasaki inspire me and I have published 40 paper in the help of Prof. Kuo, Ho-Chang and Kawasaki disease center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. We combined clinical presentations with KD characteristics to develop a five-based mnemonic device for KD that parents and first-line clinicians in clinical diagnosis of KD can easily remember: Fever> 5 days, 5 clinical criteria (Mnemonic: 1-2-3-4-5) include diffuse mucosal inflammation with strawberry tongue and fissure lips (1 mouth), bilateral non-purulent conjunctivitis (2 eyes), unilateral cervical lymphadenopathy (3 fingers check lymph node), indurative angioedema over the hands and feet (4 limbs), dysmorphic skin rashes (5 or more skin rashes), and predominantly in children < 5 years of age. We are glad to see the parents almost can awareness Kawasaki disease and ask the doctors whether their baby has the Kawasaki disease in our pediatric emergent department. That is the great contribution of Kawasaki disease for children and I will never forget Dr. Kawasaki forever.