The epidemiology of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in a rural community (total population 114,610) in northern India was studied by setting up a registry based on primary health care centres. Health workers and schoolteachers were trained to identify suspected patients in school and village surveys (121 villages). Medical specialists screened 5-15-year-olds (n = 31,200). The popula...

Acute rheumatic fever is an inflammatory response to group A streptococcal infectionwhich typically occurs two to three weeks after a throat infection.Worldwide, approximately 500 000 new cases of acute rheumatic fever occur annually, and at least 15 million people have chronic rheumatic heart disease. 2 Acute rheumatic fever is characterised by a clinical syndrome, and the most common manifest...

Background Clinical features of Lyme disease (LD) range from localized skin lesions to serious disseminated disease. Information on risk factors for Lyme arthritis, facial palsy, carditis, and meningitis is limited but could facilitate disease recognition and elucidate pathophysiology. Methods Patients from high-incidence states treated for LD during 2005-2014 were identified in a nationwide ...

Heartburn is a common symptom affecting 21-44% of the adult population on a monthly basis. Oesophagitis is less common, affecting 2% of individuals. Epidemiological studies have shown that patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) have similar incidence rates of Helicobacter pylori infection as do controls. Some groups have reported that there is a lower incidence, deducing that in...

Rheumatic fever (RF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) continue to be a major health hazard in most developing countries as well as sporadically in developed economies. Despite reservations about the utility, echocardiographic and Doppler (E&D) studies have identified a massive burden of RHD suggesting the inadequacy of the Jones' criteria updated by the American Heart Association in 1992. Subc...

Objectives: To investigate the progress of rheumatic fever (RF) and the predictors of severe chronic valvar disease. Design: Patients prospectively followed up since their first attack of acute RF (ARF). Setting: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. Patients: 258 children and adolescents who met the revised Jones criteria for RF. The follow up period ranged from 2–15 years. Main outcom...

Histological evidence of glomerulonephritis is reported in 95 (38.6%) of a series of 246 necropsies with concomitant rheumatic carditis. The details of these findings are given and their significance is discussed.