Rheumatic heart disease poses a major challenge to public health and is the most prevalent heart disease in children. The major determinants of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease are poverty, malnutrition, overcrowding, poor housing, and a shortage of health-care resources. Although cost-effective strategies for the prevention and control of these diseases are available, they remain un...

G ROUP A streptococcal infection initiates acute rheumatic fever; rheumatic valvular heart disease is a sequela that develops during or subsequent to the acute rheumatic episode. The mechanism by which the preceding streptococcal infection produces the arthritic and constitutional symptoms and valvular heart disease is unknown. Regardless of the mechanism involved, there is little doubt that pr...

G ROUP A streptococcal infection initiates acute rheumatic fever; rheumatic valvular heart disease is a sequela that develops during or subsequent to the acute rheumatic episode. The mechanism by which the preceding streptococcal infection produces the arthritic and constitutional symptoms and valvular heart disease is unknown. Regardless of the mechanism involved, there is little doubt that pr...

Background Carditis and rheumatic chronic heart disease are the most serious complications of Acute Rheumatic Fever. Nowadays prevention of recurrent episodes of group A b-hemolytic streptococcal pharyngitis is the most effective method to prevent the development of severe rheumatic heart disease. However the evidence of these guidelines are weak and result from studies conducted more than 50 y...

JUSTIFICATION Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic chronic valvular heart disease is an important preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in suburban and rural India. Its diagnosis is based on clinical criteria. These criteria need verification and revision in the Indian context. Furthermore, there are glaring differences in management protocols available in literature. These facts prompted...

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background: to evaluate the frequency, clinical presentation and cardiac involvement of children with rf in the north-east of iran. methods: a case series analysis was conducted on 80 patients with acute rheumatic fever (arf), who were hospitalized   at ghaem hospital in mashad between 1994 and 2000, were studied. laboratory tests and results from echocardiographic examinations, and clinical fi...

Rheumatic heart disease, often neglected by media and policy makers, is a major burden in developing countries where it causes most of the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in young people, leading to about 250,000 deaths per year worldwide. The disease results from an abnormal autoimmune response to a group A streptococcal infection in a genetically susceptible host. Acute rheumatic fever...

Since the turn of the century, acute rheumatic fever has become increasingly uncommon (Glover, 1930; Hitchens, 1956). Penicillin treatment of upper respiratory tract infections and the increasing use of antibiotic prophylaxis have contributed to this decline in recent years, but improved social and economic conditions and the changing pattern of streptococcal illness are probably more important...