Characteristics of patients with rheumatic heart disease in a national referral hospital in Indonesia (original) (raw)

Rheumatic Heart Disease among Patients with Valvular Heart Disease Admitted to the In-patient Department of a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Journal of Nepal Medical Association

Introduction: Valvular heart disease continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality around the world, with rheumatic heart disease accounting for the bulk of cases in developing nations. The aim of this study is to find out the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease among patients with valvular heart disease admitted to the in-patient department of a tertiary care centre. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from December, 2018 to December, 2020 at a tertiary care centre after receiving ethical approval from the Institutional Review [Reference number: 395 (6-11) e2 077/078]. Patients of age ≥18 years presenting with valvular manifestations of any disease diagnosed by transthoracic echocardiography were included and patients other than Nepalese nationals were excluded. Convenience sampling was done and a sample size of 327 was taken. Data were collected, entered and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 22.0. Point estimat...

A study of spectrum of rheumatic heart disease in a tertiary care hospital in Central Nepal

IJC Heart & Vasculature, 2017

Background and aims: Rheumatic heart disease is one of the most common cause for heart failure and associated mortalities/morbidities in the young population in developing countries like Nepal imparting huge familial, social and manpower burden. Materials and methods: This is a hospital based descriptive cross-sectional study during June 2014 to April 2016 over a period of 22 months at College of Medical Sciences-Bharatpur including 235 patients with clinical and/ or echocardiographic evidence of definite rheumatic heart disease. Results: The age of the patients ranged from 7 to 76 years with mean age 39.82 ± 4.2 years with female preponderance (F:M = 2.1:1) (p b 0.01). Majority of the rheumatic heart disease patients belonged to 30-44 years (28.78%) followed by 15-29 years (25.75%) and 45-59 years (25.00%). Majority belonged to the low socioeconomic status (60.60%) (p b 0.05). The predominantly involved isolated valve was mitral in 110 patients (46.80%) followed by isolated aortic valve in 22 patients (9.36%) and 79 (33.62%) had dual valvular involvement. The common rheumatic valvular lesions were pure mitral stenosis in 32 (13.61%), isolated mitral regurgitation in 58 (24.68%), combined mitral stenosis/regurgitation in 36 (15.32%), combined mitral/aortic regurgitation in 23 (9.78%) and combined aortic stenosis/regurgitation in 18 (7.66%) patients with few overlappings. The common complications encountered were heart failure in 90 (38.30%) and arrhythmias in 124 (51.00%) patients.130 patients (55.32%) received injectable benzathine penicillin whereas 45 patients (19.15%) preferred oral penicillin V. Surgical intervention was done in 54 (22.97%) patients. 12 (5.10%) expired in the CCU during the course of treatment. Conclusion: RHD is a leading cause of heart failure among young populations with requirement of prolonged duration of medical treatment and many of them requiring surgery.

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.

Presenting features of newly diagnosed rheumatic heart disease patients in Mulago Hospital : a pilot study : cardiovascular topics

Cardiovascular Journal Of Africa, 2013

Introduction: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) continues to cause gross distortions of the heart and the associated complications of heart failure and thromboembolic phenomena in this age of numerous high-efficacy drugs and therapeutic interventions. Due to the lack of contemporary local data, there is no national strategy for the control and eradication of the disease in Uganda. This study aimed to describe the presenting clinical features of newly diagnosed patients with RHD, with particular reference to the frequency of serious complications (atrial fibrillation, systemic embolism, heart failure and pulmonary hypertension) in the study group. Methods: One hundred and thirty consecutive patients who satisfied the inclusion criteria were recruited over a period of eight months from June 2011 to January 2012 at the Mulago Hospital, Uganda. Data on demographic characteristics, disease severity and presence of complications were collected by means of a standardised questionnaire. Results: Seventy-one per cent of the patients were female with a median age of 33 years. The peak age of the study group was 20 to 39 years, with the commonest presenting symptoms being palpitations, fatigue, chest pain and dyspnoea. The majority of the patients presented with moderate-to-severe valvular disease. Pure mitral regurgitation was the commonest valvular disease (40.2%), followed by mitral regurgitation plus aortic regurgitation (29%). Mitral regurgitation plus aortic regurgitation plus mitral stenosis was found in 11% of patients. There was only one case involving the tricuspid valve. The pulmonary valves were not affected in all patients; 45.9% of patients presented in severe heart failure in NYHA class III/IV, 53.3% had pulmonary hypertension, 13.9% had atrial fibrillation and 8.2% had infective endocarditis. All patients presented with dilated atria (> 49 mm). Conclusion: A significant proportion of RHD patients present to hospital with severe disease associated with severe complications of advanced heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, infective endocarditis and atrial fibrillation. There is a need to improve awareness of the disease among the population, and clinical suspicion in primary health workers, so that early referral to specialist management can be done before severe damage to the heart ensues.

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.

Outcomes of Echocardiography‐Detected Rheumatic Heart Disease: Validating a Simplified Score in Cohorts From Different Countries

Journal of the American Heart Association

Background The natural history of latent rheumatic heart disease (RHD) detected by echocardiography remains unclear. We aimed to assess the accuracy of a simplified score based on the 2012 World Heart Federation criteria in predicting mid‐term RHD echocardiography outcomes in children from 4 different countries. Methods and Results Patient‐level baseline and follow‐up data of children with latent RHD from 4 countries (Australia, n=62; Brazil, n=197; Malawi, n=40; New Zealand, n=94) were combined. A simplified echocardiographic scoring system previously developed from Brazilian and Ugandan cohorts, consisting of 5 point‐based variables with respective weights, was applied: mitral valveanterior leaflet thickening (weight=3), excessive leaflet tip motion (3), regurgitation jet length ≥2 cm (6), aortic valve focal thickening (4), and any regurgitation (5). Unfavorable outcome was defined as worsening diagnostic category, persistent definite RHD or development/worsening of valve regurgit...

Rheumatic heart disease revisited

Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine, 2012

Background The burden of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) continues to be a major contributor to morbidity and premature death in poor and developing countries. We investigated patterns of valvular involvement in patients with RHD as observed in a large tertiary care hospital in eastern Nepal. Methods We retrospectively reviewed transthoracic echocardiography reports from patients diagnosed with RHD between June 1999 and February 2011. Results Among 10 860 transthoracic echocardiography studies, 1055 female and 658 male patients were diagnosed with RHD, 25.7% of the patients being below 20 years of age. Mitral regurgitation was the most common valvular lesion across all age groups irrespective of sex (n U 1321, 77.1%). Female patients were significantly older as compared to male patients at the time of presentation (32.8 W 15.2 versus 28.5 W 15.4 years; P < 0.001) and more commonly presented with mitral stenosis as compared to male patients (62.8 versus 51.5%; P < 0.001), with a peak between the age of 30 and 49 years. Conversely, aortic regurgitation was more common in men as compared to women (55.6 versus 48.9%; P U 0.007). Involvement of both the mitral and the aortic valve was observed in 49.8% of the patients and was more common in men as compared to women (52.7 versus 47.8%; P U 0.047). Conclusion In this consecutive cohort of patients with RHD in Nepal differential patterns of valvular involvement are observed across sex and age categories.

Characterization of Heart Valves in Rheumatic Heart Disease Patient Using Echocardiography

2021

Original Research Article We aimed to evaluate the valves of the heart and the severity of valvular lesion in rheumatic heart disease patients using echocardiography to help patients treat the disease. A retrospective descriptive and analytic study including 60 consecutive patients (44 males and 16 females, with a mean age of 40 years) was conducted by evaluating a total of 60 echocardiography examinations of the heart. Tests were performed with a direct adhesion technology with convex and sector transducers with frequency ranges between 2 to 4 MH. The results show a high frequency of degenerative valve diseases like mixed valve disease, isolated mitral stenosis, isolated aortic regurgitation, and aortic stenosis. This study concluded that the valvular changes in Rheumatic heart disease are detectable by conventional ultrasound only in very advanced stages of the disease. The study recommended using echocardiography routinely in the diagnosis and treatment units of rheumatic heart d...

Clinical Profile and Management of Rheumatic Heart Disease in Children and Young Adults at a Tertiary Cardiac Center in Indonesia

Frontiers in Surgery, 2020

Introduction: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remains a major public health issue affecting children and young adults in developing countries. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics, management, and reactivation of RHD among children and young adults. Patients and Methods: This was a hospital-based retrospective study conducted at the National Cardiovascular Center Harapan Kita, Indonesia; we retrieved relevant data from patients diagnosed with RHD between 2012 and 2018. Results: Two hundred and seventy-nine patients were diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease, of whom 108 were children (mean age of 12.02 ± 3.36 years) and 171 were young adults (mean age was 24.9 ± 3.84). RHD was more common in female than in male young adults (1.5:1). Hospitalization due to RHD complications such as congestive heart failure was seen in 11.11% of cases in children, while pulmonary hypertension was present in 19.95% young adult cases. Reactivation of RHD occurred in 17.2% (48/279) cases, significantly in children (p < 0.001). Overall, the mitral valve (either isolated or combined) was the organ most affected in children (39.13%) and young adults (44.81%). Isolated mitral regurgitation was more common in children (13/21, 61.9%), while isolated mitral stenosis was more common in young adults (19/47, 40.42%). There was a high rate of rheumatic tricuspid valve disease in all populations (193/279, 69.17%) and reported involvement of pulmonary regurgitation (46/279, 16.48%). Multivalve lesions were more common than single lesions in both groups, with a combination of mitral and tricuspid regurgitation the predominant type in children (32/43, 74.41%) and mixed mitral lesion and tricuspid regurgitation in young adults (22/72, 30.56%). We observed a significant occurrence of quadrivalve lesions in children (p = 0.039). Valve repair was more common in children (49.07%) and replacement in young adults (32.16%), with low in-hospital mortality. Compliance with secondary prophylaxis was a significant challenge. Conclusion: Chronic RHD often presented with complications of the disease or reactivation of rheumatic fever (RF). Inadequate treatment of RF/RHD leads to extensive valvular damage and consequent disabilities. Efforts toward active early diagnosis and prompt treatment of RF/RHD and effective preventive measures are essential.