Abstract
Since 1970, when the first nationwide survey of Kawsaki disease was conducted, a total of 21 surveys have been conducted every 2 years in Japan; the latest one (the 21st) was in 2011. After the 3 nationwide epidemics in 1979, 1982, and 1986 there has no such nationwide epidemic, but the number of patients and incidence rate increased gradually since the mid-1990's. Thus the incidence rate in 2010 was higher than that in 1982. The etiology is still unknown, but epidemiologic data, such that the number of patients was the highest in January and a small elevation was observed in summer, and that age-specific incidence rate was monomodal where the peak existed at 6-11 months of age, indicate that some infectious agents might affect the onset of the disease. On the other hand, parent-child cases and sibling cases indicate a host factor. The prevalence of cardiac lesions in the acute phase and cardiac sequelae one month after the onset decreased steadily. Besides, we summarized the results of the analyses for the nationwide survey data in detail and analyzede the data in addition to other sources in this review article.
