Rheumatic Fever: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment Overview

Question. Write in brief the signs, symptoms, and treatment of rheumatic fever.
Or
Write the signs and symptoms of acute rheumatic fever.

Answer. It is an acute, recurrent, inflmmatory disease mainly of children, typically occurring 1 to 5 weeks after Group A streptococcal infection.

Rheumatic Fever: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment Overvie

Symptoms of Rheumatic Fever

Pyrexia of unknown origin.
Arthralgia, i.e. pain in joints. Pain in joints is fleeting and migratory.

Signs of Rheumatic Fever

Carditis Rheumatic Fever

It is pancarditis involving the endocardium, myocardium, and pericardium.
It manifests as breathlessness, palpitation, and chest pain.
tachycardia, cardiomegaly, and new or changed murmurs.
Aortic regurgitation in 50% cases.
Pericarditis produces frictional rub and pericardial tenderness.
Cardiac failure due to myocardial infarction.

Rheumatic Fever: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment Overview

Sydenham’s chorea rheumatic fever

Late neurological manifestations that occur at least three months after the episode of acute rheumatic fever, when all signs disappear.
More common in females.
It is characterized by involuntary dancing movements of hands, feet or face.

Arthritis rheumatic fever

Early feature of illness and is non-specific.
It is characterized by acute, painful, symmetric, and migratory inflammation of large joints.

Erythema Marginatum rheumatic fever
Red macules which fade in center but remain red at the edges and occur mainly on trunk and proximal extremities on face.

Treatment for Rheumatic Fever: Medications and Management

Subcutaneous nodules

They are small, dense and fim and painless and are best felt over tendons and bones.
Nodules appear more than 3 weeks after onset of other manifestations.

Respiratory rheumatic fever
Epistaxis is an atypical manifestation.

Gastrointestinal rheumatic fever

Mild gastroenteritis is present. Repeated vomiting spells are present.