Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease: A Review on Current Diagnosis Methods and Challenges

The rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is beleived as a major menance in developing countries. There are many diagnostic methods available for detection of RHD. But these methods have several disadvantages like in term of sensitivity, selectivity, cost, so it is very important to develop a fast, sensitive, cheap device, which can easily available for RHD diagnosis. The major challenge is to find the pathophysiology of RHD, which is still unclear. Without understanding of pahophysiology it is not easy to control any disease. Evidences used in this review shows that molecular mimicry between S. pyogenes and human cardiac tissue is responsible for RHD. This review summerized the studies available for understanding pathophysiology of RHD and present available methods for detection of RHD and considerations of future prospectus for RHD diagnosis.