Urine mercury levels in Kawasaki disease.

Six patients with diagnostic criteria for Kawasaki disease had abnormally high urinary excretions of mercury. They were compared by age, sex, and geographic location with matched controls. Improvement of one patient was temporally related to chelation of mercury with penicillamine. There are numerous clinical similarities between acrodynia and Kawasaki disease and the appearance of the mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome (Kawasaki disease) has been related temporally and geographically to environmental pollution with mercury. The mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome (Kawasaki disease) may represent a disease caused by environmental pollution with mercury, or clinical symptoms compatible with Kawasaki disease may indicate environmental exposure to mercury.