Rheumatic heart disease is a neglected post-infectious chronic disease of children and young adults that continues to maim and kill millions of people needlessly. Sub-Saharan Africa is the hotspot of the world, with a prevalence of 5·7 per 1000 in children aged 5–14 years in 2005. This information galvanised the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR), together with the WHO Regional Offi ce ...

The frequency of antigen types (A, B, C, and DR) in an unselected group of 25 patients with chronic rheumatic heart disease and an unselected group of 15 patients with acute rheumatic fever was compared with that in a group of 100 healthy volunteers. All patients and controls were Arabs of Saudi origin. Only the frequency of HLA-DR4 was significantly different in the controls and the patient gr...

BACKGROUND Acute rheumatic fever and its sequels, rheumatic heart diseases, remain major unsolved preventable health problems in Kosovo population, particularly among the disadvantages indigenous Albanian and Egyptians people. In Kosovo, despite of performing secondary prophylaxis with benzathine penicillin, acute rheumatic fever hospitalization rates have remained essentially unchanged for the...

439 O 30 or 40 years ago, rheumatic fever was a common topic in the Journal. A PubMed search for articles on rheumatic fever published between 1967 and 1976 returned 55 New England Journal of Medicine articles — fewer than for endocarditis (77) but more than for stroke and syphilis (24 entries each). A similar PubMed search for the decade 1997 through 2006 yielded just eight entries for rheumat...

BACKGROUND Complications of rheumatic heart disease are associated with severe morbidity and mortality in developing countries where the disease prevalence remains high. Due to lack of screening services, many patients present late, with severe valve disease. In Uganda, the disease and its complications are still not well studied. OBJECTIVE To profile and describe cardiovascular complications...

March 01, 2004 ABSTRACT: The basic screening studies for rheumatic diseases are a complete blood cell count, a determination of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) or C-reactive protein (CRP) level, a rheumatoid factor assay, an antinuclear antibody (ANA) test, a measurement of serum uric acid level, and a urinalysis. Test results must be interpreted within a clinical context; for example,...

Rheumatic fever and particularly rheumatic heart disease have always been regarded as rare conditions below the age of 5 years and as very rare below 3 years (Holt and McIntosh, 1953). Reported cases are few and no account of the clinical pattern of the disease in the small child has been found in the literature. In the Rheumatic and Heart Clinic, in Cairo University Hospital, we have had the o...