Characterization of Heart Valves in Rheumatic Heart Disease Patient Using Echocardiography (original) (raw)

Echocardiographic Profile of Rheumatic Heart Disease at a Tertiary Cardiac Centre

J Ayub Med Coll …, 2009

Background: Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) continues to be a major public health problem in developing countries like Pakistan. Objective of this cross sectional-analytical study was to analyze the severity of valvular lesions on echocardiography in patients pre-diagnosed with RHD. Methods: The transthoracic echocardiographic records of RHD patients from 2004 to 2008 were retrospectively reviewed for type and degree of valvular involvement according to AHA/ACC guidelines. Results: A total of 13,414 patients [7,219 Males (53.8%), 6,195 Females (46.2%)] ranging from 11 to 90 years with a mean age of 42.33±18.976 were studied. On echocardiography, 7,500 (56%) had mitral regurgitation (8.8% severe MR), 6,449(48.2%) had tricuspid regurgitation (7.1% severe TR) and 5,550 (41.4%) had aortic regurgitation (4.8% severe AR). MS was detected in 2,729 (20.3%) patients (15.3% severe MS), AS in 102 (0.8%) and TS in 31 (0.2%) patients. Mixed mitral valve disease was seen in 3,185 (23.7%), mixed aortic valve disease in 222 (1.7%) and mixed tricuspid valve disease in 47 (0.4%) patients. All three valves were involved in 2,826 (21.06%) patients, combination of mitral and aortic valves in 3,103 (23.13%), mitral and tricuspid in 3,784 (28.2 %), and mitral only in 3,701 (27.59%) patients. There was some mitral valve abnormality in all patients. Conclusion: Mitral valve was most commonly affected, while regurgitant lesions were more common than stenotic lesions, and most severe in younger patients. All valvular lesions had almost an equal distribution among the sexes, except aortic regurgitation, which was more common in females. Therefore, echocardiography should be done routinely for patients with RHD, focusing on younger population, to facilitate diagnosis and definitive treatment before complications set in.

Clinical, Echocardiographic Characteristics and Management Practices in Patients with Rheumatic Valvular Heart Disease

Open Access Rheumatology: Research and Reviews

Background: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is the long-term consequence of acute rheumatic fever (ARF), continues unabated among middle-income and low-income countries. Thus, this study aimed to assess clinical characteristics, echocardiographic characteristics, and management practice of RHD patients. Methods: Hospital-based prospective cross-sectional study was used. The data were collected from medical records of consecutive patients admitted to medical wards during the study period. The data were cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data. Chi-square was used to compare proportions between categorical variables. Results: Forty-seven patients with a median (IQR) age of 28.0 (17.0-40.0) years were included. Pan systolic murmur was reported in 91.50% of patients. Forty-two (89.4%) of patients were presented with congestive heart failure and 23 (48.9%) with atrial fibrillation. Mitral valve leaflet thickening and calcification with restriction of motion were reported in 91.5% of patients. Mitral regurgitation (MR) (87.2%) and stenosis (MS) (85.1%) were the most common valvular lesions. The combinations of three (MR+MS+TR) 14 (29.8%) and four (MR+MS+TR+AR) 13 (27.7%) valve diseases were most commonly reported. Diuretics (95.7%), anticoagulants (38.3%), digoxin (36.2%), and beta-blockers (34.0%) were among the commonly prescribed medications. Conclusion: Rheumatic heart disease affected younger adults. Pansystolic murmur was reported in nearly all patients. Congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation were common clinical presentations. Morphologic changes in mitral valve and pathologic mitral regurgitation were the most common echocardiographic reports. Cardiovascular medications were commonly utilized for symptomatic management of complications Therefore, echocardiography should be done routinely for patients with RHD, focusing on younger adults, to facilitate diagnosis and treatment before complications develop.

Rheumatic Heart Disease Screening by Echocardiography

Circulation, 2009

Background— Early case detection is vital in rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in children to minimize the risk of advanced valvular heart disease by preventive measures. The currently utilized World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for echocardiographic diagnosis of subclinical RHD emphasize the presence of pathological valve regurgitation but do not include valves with morphological features of RHD without pathological regurgitation. We hypothesized that adding morphological features to diagnostic criteria might have significant consequences in terms of case detection rates. Methods and Results— We screened 2170 randomly selected school children aged 6 to 17 years in Maputo, Mozambique, clinically and by a portable ultrasound system. Two different echocardiographic sets of criteria for RHD were assessed: “WHO” (exclusively Doppler-based) and “combined” (Doppler and morphology-based) criteria. Independent investigators reviewed all suspected RHD cases using a higher-resolution, nonpo...

World Heart Federation criteria for echocardiographic diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease--an evidence-based guideline

Nature reviews. Cardiology, 2012

Over the past 5 years, the advent of echocardiographic screening for rheumatic heart disease (RHD) has revealed a higher RHD burden than previously thought. In light of this global experience, the development of new international echocardiographic guidelines that address the full spectrum of the rheumatic disease process is opportune. Systematic differences in the reporting of and diagnostic approach to RHD exist, reflecting differences in local experience and disease patterns. The World Heart Federation echocardiographic criteria for RHD have, therefore, been developed and are formulated on the basis of the best available evidence. Three categories are defined on the basis of assessment by 2D, continuous-wave, and color-Doppler echocardiography: 'definite RHD',…

3D Echocardiography for Rheumatic Heart Disease Analysis: Ready for Prime Time

Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remains to be a very important health issue worldwide, mainly in underdeveloped countries. It continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality throughout developing countries. RHD is a delayed non-suppurative immunologically mediated inflammatory response to the throat infection caused by a hemolytic streptococcus from the A group (Streptococcus pyogenes). RHD keeps position 1 as the most common cardiovascular disease in young people aged <25 years considering all the continents. The disease can lead to valvular cardiac lesions as well as to carditis. Rheumatic fever valvular injuries lead most commonly to the fusion and thickening of the edges of the cusps and to the fusion, thickening, and shortening of the chordae and ultimately to calcification of the valves. Valvular commissures can also be deeply compromised, leading to severe stenosis. Atrial and ventricular remodeling is also common following rheumatic infection. Mixed valvular lesi...

Echocardiographic diagnosis of rheumatic cardiopathy affecting all four cardiac valves

American Heart Journal, 1990

Witwer GA. Composite graft replacement of the ascending aorta and aortic valve. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1988;95:924-8. 3. Crawford, ES. Marfan's syndrome. Broad spectral surgical treatment cardiovascular manifestations. Ann Surg 1983;198: 487-505. 4. Probst P, Baur HR, Leupi F, et al. Postoperative evaluation of composite aortic grafts: comparison of angiography and CT. Br J Radio1 1983;56:797-804. 5. Wendel CH, Cornman CR, Dianzumba SB. Diagnosis of pseudoaneurysm of the ascending aorta by pulsed Doppler cross sectional echocardiography. Br Heart J 1985;53:567-70. 6. Hoadley SD. Aortic pseudoaneurysm with right atria1 communication shown by Doppler color flow imaging. AM HEARI J 1987:114:1535-36.

Screening for rheumatic heart disease: evaluation of a simplified echocardiography-based approach

European heart journal cardiovascular Imaging, 2012

Portable echocardiography has emerged as a potential tool to detect rheumatic heart disease (RHD) early. Complex echocardiographic criteria used in recent epidemiological studies may be difficult to translate into daily practice in areas where the burden of RHD is greatest and skilled practitioners are lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate a simplified echo approach for RHD screening among children in low-income countries. Retrospective analysis of data from a cross-sectional echocardiography-based study carried out in 2005 through the examination of 2170 school children in Maputo, Mozambique. We aimed to evaluate the value of a reference set of criteria (defined as a combination of Doppler and morphological rheumatic features of the aortic and/or mitral valves) compared with an easy-to-use single mitral regurgitation jet-length criterion (simplified set of criteria). All suspected lesions (according to reference or simplified criteria) detected in the field by a portable e...

The Utility of Handheld Echocardiography for Early Diagnosis of Rheumatic Heart Disease

Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography, 2014

Background: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remains endemic in most of the developing world. Echocardiography has proved highly sensitive for early detection of RHD, but it remains too costly for most low-income settings. Handheld ultrasound machines used to perform handheld echocardiography (HAND) are both less expensive and more portable, possibly making them ideal screening tools. HAND has never been tested for the early diagnosis of RHD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of focused HAND compared with focused standard portable echocardiography for the diagnosis of subclinical RHD.