Medication compliance in Kawasaki disease patients with coronary involvement

• Published in: Journal of the Japanese Association for Cerebro-cardiovascular Disease Control Vol. 30; no. 2; pp. 77 - 82
• Main Authors: Okawa, Surnio, Sonobe, Tomoyoshi, Aso, Seijiro, Tsuchiya, Keiji, Imada, Yoshio, Kataoka, Tadashi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japanese Association for Cerebro-cardiovascular Disease Control 1995; 社団法人 日本循環器管理研究協議会
• Subjects: coronary involvement; Kawasaki disease; medication compliance; 冠動脈障害; 川崎病; 服薬状況
• ISSN: 0914-7284
• DOI: 10.11381/jjcdp1974.30.77

Kawasaki disease with coronary involvement requires long term antithrombotic therapy but because it is an asymptomatic condition. Consistency in taking medication is a problem. We have experienced a case of myocardial infarction occurring due to non-compliance in medication use. As a result a survey was conducted on medication compliance in our 94 outpatients to study non-compliance. The survey was performed by examining outpatient clinical charts and counting the actual days covered by prescriptions in a year. The survey revealed that 64% of the patients were regular in their hospital visits to pickup prescriptions as scheduled, 14% were covered by prescriptions for 300 days or more but less than 1 year, and 22% were covered less than 300 days. Non-compliance predominated in older children and mildly involved coronary cases. To improve medication compliance, we have to recognize that medication non-compliance is not infrequent among patients of Kawasaki disease with coronary involvement. More precise disease education for both parents and patients, especially for young children, appears to be necessary.