Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) is still a major problem in some developing and low middle income countries though the incidence and prevalence has remarkably reduced in North America and Europe. Ever since T. Duckett Jones in 1944 proposed the Jones criteria, it was modified and later revised by the American Heart Association (AHA) in 1992. This was reconfirmed in and AHA sponsored Work shop in 20...

Studies published in the past 10 years suggest that group A streptococcal infections are frequent in the Orient and lead to a high incidence of rheumatic fever (RF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD). In the present study, streptococcal infections were found to be more prevalent in Japan and Taiwan, whereas RF and RHD were more common and severe in the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, parti...

BACKGROUND Gastroesophageal reflux disease is an increasingly common condition worldwide causing a considerable economic impact. More than half the patients with clinical symptoms of reflux disease display no mucosal erosions on esophagogastroduodenoscopy, making it impossible to confirm the diagnosis without further investigations. AIM To evaluate the correlation between minimal endoscopic c...

Anti-myosin Abs are associated with inflammatory heart diseases such as rheumatic carditis and myocarditis. In this study, human cross-reactive anti-streptococcal/anti-myosin mAbs 1.C8, 1.H9, 5.G3, and 3.B6, produced from peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with rheumatic carditis, and mAb 10.2.5, produced from a tonsil, were characterized, and the nucleotide sequences of their V(H) and V(...

Rheumatic fever (RF) remains endemic in many countries and frequently causes heart failure due to severe chronic rheumatic valvular heart disease, which requires surgical treatment. Here, we report on a patient who underwent an elective surgical correction for mitral and aortic valvular heart disease and had a post-operative diagnosis of acute rheumatic carditis. The incidental finding of Ascho...