Tomisaku Kawasaki | |
---|---|
Born | 1 February 1925 Tokyo, Japan |
Died | 5 June 2020 Tokyo, Japan | (aged 95)
Nationality | Japanese |
Education | Chiba University (MD) |
Occupation | Pediatrician |
Years active | 1948–2019 |
Known for | Describing Kawasaki disease |
Children | 3 |
Medical career | |
Institutions | Japan Red Cross Medical Center, Hiroo |
Sub-specialties | Pediatrics |
Tomisaku Kawasaki (川崎 富作, Kawasaki Tomisaku, February 1, 1925 – June 5, 2020) was a Japanese pediatrician who first described the condition now known as Kawasaki disease in the 1960s.[1][2] Alongside rheumatic heart disease, Kawasaki disease is considered to be the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children worldwide.[3]
Tomisaku Kawasaki was born on 1 February 1925 in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, as the youngest of seven children. He was "very interested in plants and fruit, and surprised to learn how the 20th-century pear had suddenly appeared", but eventually abandoned plans to study botany because his mother favored him to be a physician. He studied medicine at Chiba University, graduating in 1948.[4]
Kawasaki conducted his medical internship year in Chiba and decided to specialize in pediatrics, due to his fondness for children.[5] Medical residency in post-war Japan was unpaid and as his family suffered financial problems, his advisor recommended him take up a paid position at the Japan Red Cross Medical Center in Hiroo, Tokyo. He would later practice as a pediatrician there for over 40 years.[5]
After 10 years of researching milk allergy and unusual host-parasite cases, he saw a 4-year-old boy presenting with a myriad of clinical signs he later termed "Mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome" (MCLS) in 1961.[5][6] In 1962, he saw a second patient with the same constellation of symptoms. After he had collected a series of seven cases, he presented them at a meeting of the Japanese Pediatric Association. Reviewers rejected his submission for publication because they did not believe it was a new disease entity.[7] Opposition from several academics over the alleged discovery of the new disease lasted several years. Only after he had collected a total of 50 cases, his 44-page paper was published in the Japanese Journal of Allergy in 1967.[3][8] The paper included comprehensive hand-drawn diagrams of each patient's rashes and has been described as "one of the most beautiful examples of descriptive clinical writing".[9] Other colleagues across the country soon reported similar cases.[10]
It was not until 1970, that the Ministry of Health and Welfare eventually established a research committee on MCLS headed by Dr. Fumio Kosaki.[11] This committee conducted a nationwide study on the disease, confirming it was a new disease which specifically targeted arteries across the body.[11] In 1973, a pathologist discovered the connection to cardiac disease when he found a child with Kawasaki disease had coronary artery thrombosis at an autopsy.[7] Kawasaki headed the Kawasaki Disease Research Committee which published its findings in the journal, Pediatrics finally in 1974;[12] He has been called "part Sherlock Holmes and part Charles Dickens for his sense of mystery and his vivid descriptions".[10] It was the first time MCLS was published in English and brought international attention to the disease.[11]
Kawasaki retired in 1990, and established the Japan Kawasaki Disease Research Center, which he led as director until 2019 and honorary chairman until 2020.[4][9] Only in 1992, Kawasaki disease was officially added to Nelson's Textbook of Pediatrics, a leading textbook in the specialty, cementing international recognition of the disease.[5]
In 2007, Kawasaki estimated over 200,000 cases of Kawasaki disease had been diagnosed in Japan since the research committee's findings in 1970.[5] Kawasaki himself never referred to the disease by its eponymous name but conceded that the original name was too long.[13]
Kawasaki was married to fellow pediatrician Reiko Kawasaki who died in 2019. He died on 5 June 2020 of natural causes at the age of 95 years old.[4] He was survived by his two daughters and a son. Obituaries paying tribute to Kawasaki were published in medical journals worldwide in the aftermath of his death.[14][15]