Rhematic

Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) remains a leading cause of cardiovascular death (CVD) globally. Mitral Valve repair (MVP) and mitral valve replacement (MVR) are the two most commonly and successfully used techniques to treat the disease. MVP is associated with reduced post-operative complications compared to MVR; however, it carries the risk of valvular fibrosis and scarring. Given the lack of recommendations, inconsistent findings, and paucity of pathophysiological evidence at present, we aimed to conduct a meta-analysis and systematically review the available literature to determine the efficacy and safety of MVP compared to MVR in improving clinical outcomes among patients with RHD...

OBJECTIVES: We describe the public health response to an outbreak of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) in a remote Aboriginal community. METHODS: In August 2021, the Northern Territory Rheumatic Heart Disease Control Program identified an outbreak of acute rheumatic fever in a remote Aboriginal community. A public health response was developed using a modified acute poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis protocol and the National Acute Rheumatic Fever Guideline for Public Health Units...

OBJECTIVE: Predicting the efficacy of biological disease-modifying anti-rhematic drugs (bDMARDs) is challenging. In this study, we aimed to explore markers that predict the efficacy of abatacept in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. METHODS: Thirty RA patients receiving abatacept were recruited, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from the participants were subjected to DNA microarray analysis. The expression of CCR4, which was selected by the result of DNA microarray, was determined by flow cytometry in 16 newly diagnosed treatment-naïve RA patients...

Rheumatic heart disease is among the common causes of cardiovascular morbidity in developing countries. Here we present the hemodynamic interplay of stenotic rhematic involvement of aortic, mitral, and tricuspid valves in a 35-year-old female. Though noninvasive imaging by echocardiography and doppler has taken the upper hand today, this case illustrates the crucial role of cardiac catheterization in understanding the hemodynamics and patient management of rheumatic multivalvular heart disease.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients with COVID-19 are at higher risk of morbidity and mortality. This study describes the risks and outcome of CVD patients with COVID-19 attending primary health care corporation (PHCC) settings in Qatar. Aim/Objectives: To report whether CVD increase the risk for hospitalization and further complications in COVID-19 patients. Methods: Retrospective cohort study. Results: A total of 10,178 CVD patients' data who tested COVID-19 positive were extracted from electronic medical records based on the inclusion criteria and analysed during the period of February-December 2020 (11 months)...

The concept behind the resolution of inflammation has changed in the past decades from a passive to an active process, which reflects in novel avenues to understand and control inflammation-driven diseases. The time-dependent and active process of resolution phase is orchestrated by the endogenous biosynthesis of specialized pro-resolving lipid mediators (SPMs). Inflammation and its resolution are two forces in rheumatic diseases that affect millions of people worldwide with pain as the most common experienced symptom...

CONTEXT: Alstonia boonei De Wild (Apocyanaceae) is used in ethnomedicine for the management of malaria, ulcer, rhematic pain, toothache, and inflammatory disorders. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the anti-inflammatory potential of β-amyrin and α-amyrin acetate isolated from the stem bark of Alstonia boonei using animal models. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Chromatographic purification of the crude methanol extract led to the isolation and structure elucidation of β-amyrin and α-amyrin acetate...

Mitral valve (MV) dysfunction is the second-most common clinically significant form of valvular defect in adults. MV regurgitation occurs with the increasing frequency of degenerative changes of the aging process. Moreover, other causes of clinically significant MV regurgitation include cardiac ischemia, infective endocarditis and rhematic disease more frequently in less developed countries. Recent evidence suggests that the best outcomes after repair of severe degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR) are achieved in asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients, who are selected for surgery soon after diagnosis on the basis of echocardiography...

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We observed a series of 9 patients (1 male, 8 females, mean age 49 years) who had experienced cerebral vascular events with livedo racemosa (Sneddon's syndrome). Vascular dementia occurred in 3 patients and in the 6 others there was a single or several acute cerebral ischaemic events. Angiography of the brain revealed multiple distal arterial occlusions in 5 cases and a moya-moya type collateral network in 2. Positivity for anticardiolipid antibodies fluctuated in 4 cases and there was a lupic syndrome in 2...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Among 481 patients undergoing various mitral valve operations, Aschoff bodies were found in 40 (21%) of 191 operatively excised left atrial appendages, in four (2%) of 273 operatively excised left ventricular papillary muscles (1 per patient), and in one (6%) of 17 patients with both left atrial appendage and papillary muscle operatively excised. Of the total of 45 patients with Aschoff bodies, 44 preoperatively had mitral stenosis, and only one, a 10-year-old boy, had pure mitral regurgitation. Sinus rhythm was present in 38 (84%), and atrial fibrillation in seven (16%)...

Among 543 necropsy patients over age 14 years with severe chronic valvular heart disease, Aschoff bodies were found in 11 patients (2%). The ages of the 11 patients ranged from 18 to 68 years (avg. 38), and nine had had a history of acute rhematic fever earlier in life. Clinically, nine of the 11 patients had mitral stenosis with or without dysfunction of one or more other cardiac valves, one had isolated aortic regurgitation, and one had both mitral and aortic regurgitation. All 11 patients had diffuse fibrous thickening of the mitral valve leaflets, and all but one had diffuse anatomic lesions of at least one other cardiac valve...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Californian specialists in the treatment of rheumatic diseases were surveyed to determine the spatial distribution of rheumatologic services in the state, the amount of patient care time available for the rhematic diseases in each county, the physicians' capacity to treat all rhemmatic disease patients who seek their care, and their perception of the need for more specialists in their area. The data resulting from the survey are analyzed by four methods to assess the sufficiency of medical manpower resoruces...