We compared the incidence of rheumatic heart disease in elementary schoolchildren from low and high socioeconomic groups; children from one of the schools were rescreened 10 years later. The results showed that the incidence of rheumatic heart disease was significantly higher in low socioeconomic group but it is gradually declining.

A few years ago, my colleagues and I conducted a systematic review of data relating to the global burden of group A streptococcal diseases.1,2 Population-based data on rheumatic heart disease prevalence from 1985 through 2002 were included. We estimated that there were a minimum of 15.6 million people in the world with rheumatic heart disease, with 282 000 new cases each year and 233 000 result...

OBJECTIVE In high-burden Australian states and territories, registers of patients with acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease are maintained for patient management, monitoring of system performance and research. Data validation was undertaken for the Australian Northern Territory Rheumatic Heart Disease Register to determine quality and impact of data cleaning on reporting against ke...

Several diseases have been acknowledged as pathological causes for mitral valve stenosis (MS), of which rheumatic heart disease is the most prevalent. Rheumatic heart disease is a chronic manifestation of rheumatic carditis, which occurs in 60% to 90% of cases of rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever is a late sequela to Group A -hemolytic streptococcal infection of the throat. The initial rheumatic...

Dilation and hypertrophy of the atria occur in patients with valvular heart disease especially in mitral regurgitation, mitral stenosis or tricuspid abnormalities. In sub-saharan Africa, rheumatic fever is still the leading cause of valvular heart disease. We report a case of an unusual giant right atrium in context of rheumatic stenosis and severe tricuspid regurgitation in a 58-year-old woman.

BACKGROUND We set out to examine which treatment option available in the United States was most cost-effective in treating children with endemic group A streptococcal pharyngitis to prevent rheumatic heart disease. METHODS Cost-effectiveness was calculated from the societal perspective and expressed in cases of rheumatic heart disease prevented annually in the U.S. pediatric population aged 5...

The present study was undertaken to determine the degree and frequency with which healing of the lesions of rheumatic heart disease occurs, as expressed by the disappearance of physical signs after the active stage of the infection. The problem presents immediate controversial aspects as to: (a) the diagnostic criteria for determining the presence of rheumatic heart disease; (b) its severity; a...