Rheumatic heart disease – Cardiology Basics

Rheumatic heart disease – Cardiology Basics Rheumatic heart disease is a group diseases which occur secondary to heart valve damage from rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever is a disease in which antibodies produced by the body against streptococci cross react with different tissues in the body, especially the heart. Group A beta hemolytic streptococci causing sore throat are involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatic fever. Most of the long term damage following rheumatic fever is caused by damage to heart valves . Initial manifestation of rheumatic fever is with polyarthritis, usually of the large joints. But it does not usually cause long lasting damage to the joints, though in the initial stage the joints are quite painful. Heart valve damage may be initially silent and manifest later with severe rheumatic heart disease. Other likely manifestations of rheumatic fever are involuntary movements known chorea, subcutaneous nodules over the bony prominences and scalp, and erythema marginatum. Fortunately, polyarthritis and chorea do not occur at the same time. Otherwise, it would have caused severe pain in the inflamed joints. Chorea is usually a delayed manifestation of rheumatic fever while joint pain is an early manifestation. By that time, polyarthritis would have subsided. Subcutaneous nodules and erythema marginatum do not cause much problem to the child with rheumatic fever as they disappear soon. Polyarthritis also subsides sooner or later, even without treatment. But...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs