Introduction Chronic ambulatory heart failure (HF) is usually the most common clinical manifestation of advanced rheumatic heart disease (RHD) . HF in RHD patients typically develops after a chronic, often asymptomatic, period of progressive valvular heart disease, typically manifesting clinically…
Introduction Until recently, the diagnosis and evaluation of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) was purely clinical in resource-poor settings where RHD has remained endemic. The advent of portable echocardiographic technology, however, now means that this valuable diagnostic tool is more widely…
INTRODUCTION Initial management of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is based on establishing the diagnosis, eradication of the streptococcal organism, curtailment of normal physical activities, management of fever, joint manifestations, carditis and heart failure, and Sydenham chorea. Long-term care involves the…
Introduction The diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) relies on a combination of clinical evaluation and laboratory studies. Diagnosis is usually made using the clinical criteria first formulated by T. Duckett Jones in 1944, which have subsequently undergone multiple modifications,…
Acknowledgments Research grants to MWC: (a) HL35280 and HL56267 from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and National Institute of Mental Health Bench to Bedside; (b) grants from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology and the…
Introduction Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an immune-mediated, nonsuppurative consequence of group A β-hemolytic streptococcus (GAS) infection. Although episodes of ARF can result in significant disability, the major impact of ARF at the population level is that it causes long-term,…