Early descriptions of the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome emphasized its occurrence in the absence of demonstrable cardiac abnornalities.8' 7,1 Bishop remarked that the syndrome appeared occasionally in patients with hypertensive heart disease, acute glomerulonephritis, or inactive rheumatic heart disease, but felt that these factors were coincidental rather than caustive.2 However, a review of ...

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a preventable that remains endemic in developing countries. More than 30 million people the world suffer from RHD, of which approximately 300,000 die every year, despite fact this and treatable. After period relative neglect rheumatic diseases due to decrease incidence developed countries, interest problem has increased again over past decade, due, apparent­ly, ...

T here has been a long-standing consensus1 that the risk of embolization in patients with atrial fibrillation and rheumatic heart disease, in particular, mitral stenosis, is sufficiently high to justify anticoagulant prophylaxis. However, there has been no consensus in regard to nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation. The recognition that nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation is common and associated with...

Rheuniatic fever is a recurrent disease which frequently can be prevented. Infection with group A streptococci precipitates both initial and recurrent attacks; therefore, prevention of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease depends upon the control of streptococcal infections. This may be accomplished, one by prevention of streptococcal infections in rheumatic subjects, and, two by early a...

One hundred and eleven patients with rheumatic carditis of the first attack were treated with steroid hormone. In the cases, in which the steroid hormone therapy started within 2 weeks from the onset of the disease, all except one did not reveal a residual valvular heart disease after 2 years from the treatment. It was suggested that early diagnosis and the earliest start of steroid hormone the...

doi:10.2471/BLT.07.046680 For a disease to be suitable for screening as a tool of preventive medicine, it must satisfy the following criteria: (1) the evidence of an obvious burden of the disease, (2) an initial latent stage of the condition, (3) which can be detected by appropriate tests, (4) and treated by adequate therapy, and finally (5) to prove that intervention at an early stage can impr...

Although the incidence of rheumatic fever has declined significantly over the last decade, testing for antibodies to streptococcal extracellular enzymes maintains an important role in differentiating this disease from others with similar characteristics. Detection of antibodies to streptolysin O and DNase-B remain the more popular single antibody tests while the streptozyme test, which detects ...

Rheuniatic fever is a recurrent disease which frequently can be prevented. Infection with group A streptococci precipitates both initial and recurrent attacks; therefore, prevention of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease depends upon the control of streptococcal infections. This may be accomplished, one by prevention of streptococcal infections in rheumatic subjects, and, two by early a...

To determine whether genetic factors could be involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatic heart disease, we performed HLA-A and HLA-B typing in 59 Indian patients with severe chronic rheumatic heart disease requiring cardiac surgery, and HLA-DR and HLA-DQ typing in 58 of these patients. The HLA typing was done by a standard microlymphocytotoxicity method. Patients were 12 to 59 years old (mean 32...