title: The first attack of acute rheumatic fever in childhood--clinical and laboratory profile.
abstract: One hundred consecutive cases of 'first attack' of acute rheumatic fever were studied. There were 52 males and 48 females, constituting 1.12% of total hospital admissions. Nearly 10% of children were below the age of 5 years, stressing the early onset of rheumatic fever in tropics. Only 47% gave a definite history of overcrowding at home. Sore throat was present in 67%, overt arthritis in 66%, carditis in 57%, arthralgia alone in 22% of which 45.45% had carditis. Small joint involvement was noticed in 23% of cases of which 73.91% had carditis. Only 33.33% had congestive cardiac failure. Ten per cent of children had chorea, while subcutaneous nodules were seen in 4% of cases, all of whom had associated carditis. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) showed good correlation with clinical profile. Throat cultures were positive for beta hemolytic streptococci only in 12% of cases. Anti-streptolysin 'O' (ASO) titre showed significant titres on 68% of cases, anti-deoxyribonuclease "B" (ADN-B) in 69.32%, antibody to group A carbohydrate (ACHO) in 70.65%. ASO, ADN-B, and ACHO titres together gave 87.5% positivity while estimations in paired sera showed ASO 79.54%, ADN-B 82.27% and ASO, ADN-B together 99.92% significant titres. Study of blood groups showed A group children to be more vulnerable to rheumatic fever (37.5%) and rheumatic carditis (47.37%). Mortality in the present study was nil.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Medical College Hospital, Trivandrum.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Philip
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Bahuleyan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Shanmugham
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Suguna Bai
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D012213:Rheumatic Fever / Q000453:epidemiology