Rheumatic Heart Disease Research Paper

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Rheumatic Heart disease
Etiology
Rheumatic heart disease is cardiac inflammation and scarring triggered by an autoimmune reaction to infection with group A streptococci. In the acute stage, this condition consists of pericarditis, involving inflammation of the myocardium, endocardium, and epicardium. Chronic disease is manifested by valvar fibrosis, resulting in stenosis and/or insufficiency.
Classification
Rheumatic heart disease is the most serious complication of rheumatic fever. Acute rheumatic fever follows 0.3% of cases of group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal pharyngitis in children. As many as 39% of patients with acute rheumatic fever may develop varying degrees of pancarditis with associated valve insufficiency, heart failure, pericarditis, …show more content…
In susceptible people, an immune response occurs two to three weeks following an untreated Group A Streptococcus throat infection. This response can target the brain, skin, joints and heart, and can cause inflammation.

Acute rheumatic fever can be undiagnosed and this can cause failure to prevent or recognise rheumatic heart disease. Failure to recognise ARF and limited access to healthcare can contribute to the under-diagnosis of ARF.
Rheumatic heart disease is caused by rheumatic fever, an inflammatory disease that can affect many connective tissues, especially in the heart, joints, skin, or brain. The heart valve damage caused by rheumatic fever forces the heart to work harder to pump blood and, over time, may cause heart failure. Heart-related symptoms may take years to develop.
Rheumatic fever is an autoimmune disease which may develop after strep throat infection.
The Jones criteria are used to help physicians make the clinical diagnosis of rheumatic fever.
Rheumatic fever does not affect all individuals who have had a strep throat …show more content…
In advanced cases, patients may complain of dyspnea, mild-to-moderate chest discomfort, pleuritic chest pain, edema, cough, or orthopnea. For a graph illustrating the time course for the carditis relative to the other clinical manifestations of rheumatic fever, see the Medscape Reference article Pediatric Rheumatic Fever.
Upon physical examination, carditis is most commonly detected by a new murmur and tachycardia out of proportion to fever. New or changing murmurs are considered necessary for a diagnosis of rheumatic valvulitis.
Some cardiologists have proposed that echo-Doppler evidence of mitral insufficiency, particularly in association with aortic insufficiency, may be sufficient for a diagnosis of carditis (even in the absence of accompanying auscultatory findings) [14] ; however, given the sensitivity of modern Doppler devices, this remains controversial.
Other cardiac manifestations include congestive heart failure and pericarditis.
Patients in whom the diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever is made should be frequently examined because of the progressive nature of the
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