Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common cause of acquired cardiovascular disease in childhood in the United States. The~ 8th International Symposium will bring together scientists and clinicians from around the world to discuss the latest advances in Kawasaki disease research. The meeting is planned for February 17-20, 2005, in San Diego, California and 400 participants from the U.S. and abroad are anticipated. A major clinical focus of the next meeting will be to review amendments to the clinical case definition proposed by the American Heart Association Committee on Rheumatic Fever, Endocarditis, and Kawasaki Disease, which are intended to facilitate the timely treatment of all children at risk for coronary artery complications. An international panel of experts will debate the pros and cons of the proposed changes to the clinical case definition. Additional areas of emphasis for this next meeting will include: 1) advances in the understanding of genetic influences on disease susceptibility, response to therapy, and clinical outcome; 2) application of molecular techniques including reverse genetics, epitope library screening, synthetic antibody production, and gene expression analysis by microarray to understand the etiology and pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease; 3) new therapeutic agents for management of acute KD and its chronic cardiovascular complications; and 4) new developments in cardiovascular imaging techniques. These four areas represent rapidly evolving disciplines that will be critical to furthering our understanding of this enigmatic disease. The anticipated audience for this meeting includes pediatric and adult cardiologists; pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists in immunology, infectious disease, and rheumatology; cardiovascular surgeons; pathologists; basic scientists urgenetics, molecular biology, microbiology, cardiovascular pathophysiology; public health officials from county and state agencies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; epidemiologists; and nurses working in the areas of pediatric cardiology and public health.
