Jett Travolta's death sheds light on rarely-discussed childhood disorder

By Kay Quinn, Healthbeat Reporter

KSDK -- Actor John Travolta and his family were very vocal about another serious illness their late son Jett had been diagnosed with: Kawasaki Disease. It can cause heart problems and is typically diagnosed in children under the age of five. Here's a closer look at this somewhat mysterious disease.

Jett Travolta was two when he was diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease, also known as Kawasaki Syndrome.

Two-year-old Tyrece Cole of Columbia, Missouri was just released from a week-long stay at St. Louis Children's Hospital after coming down with Kawasaki on Christmas Day.

"He had a high fever," said his mother, Shamene Holt, "and we took him to the ER in Columbia, Missouri, and they just said he had Bronchiolitis."

But this little boy did not have an infection of the lung's airways. Tyrece was diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease four days later after two more trips to the emergency room in Columbia and a real turn for the worse.

"Monday (Tyrece) couldn't walk," Holt said. "He had a bad rash, his feet were swollen, his hands were swollen, and we went back to Boone Hospital and then the shipped us up here."

The main symptoms for Kawasaki Disease are fever, enlarged lymph nodes, cracked lips, red eyes and peeling of the hands and feet. Kawasaki Disease is most common in Asian-American children and about 15 percent of patients will develop enlarged heart arteries, which could lead to blood clots.

"It's not contagious, though," said Dr. Angela Sharkey, a pediatric cardiologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital. "It's not something where if a kid comes to school and has Kawasaki, that another child in the classrooms going to be at risk for."

But it can cause a serious enlargement of heart arteries.

"The life threatening problem is the coronary artery involvement, if there's enlargement in the coronary arteries," Sharkey said.

Not every patient with heart involvement will die. Most improve over time.

"So it's going to go away," said Sharkey, "and it'll get better over time and usually it's within the first 18 months that we'll see resolution of those."

Kawasaki Disease is mysterious because no one knows what causes it.

Even though Tyrece arrived at St. Louis Children's Hospital with all the classic symptoms of Kawasaki, doctors first had to rule out other illnesses that can mimic it, like blood stream infections and viruses. Aspirin and immune globulin, a medicine that helps the body fight disease, are the typical treatments. Tyrece had them both.

"A lot of times I punish myself, you know," Holt said. "But they don't know what it's from or anything so I'm just glad he's well now."

Now this little two-year-old is looking forward to going home to play with his Christmas presents for the first time.

There's been some research into whether viruses or even carpet cleaning agents could trigger Kawasaki.

But again, no real trigger's ever been found.

The disease is uncommon, resulting in about 4,200 pediatric hospitalizations each year.