Subclinical Valvular Involvement in Rheumatic Fever: Comparison of Patients with Isolated Polyarthrits and Chorea Minor

We aimed to investigate subclinical valvular involvement in patients with isolared polyarthritis and pure chorea minor by colored Doppler echocardiography (CDE). CDE was performed in 39 children with rheumatic fever (RF) without evident cardiac inovolvemenL 20 of 39 patients had isolared polyarthritis, I 5 had pure chorea and 4 had chorea associated with previous arthritis. 20 of them were female, ı 9 m ale, and mean age w as 11.2±2.6. Eleven of the 39 patients had innocent murınurs. CDE disc losed s iıent mitral and/or aortic regurgitation (MR and/or AR) in 30 of 39 (77%) patients with RF without evident cardiac involvement; i.e. 15 with isolated MR, 1 ı combined MR and AR, and 4 isolated AR. The frequency of silent valvular regurgitation was not significantly different in patients between with and without innocent murmurs while s ilent va lvular regurgitations w ere demonstrated in I 4 of I 5 patients with pure chorea ıninor and 13 of 20 patie nts with polyarthritis. Silent va lvular regurgitation was encountered in most patients with Sydenham's chorea and with isolared polyarthritis though significantly higher in patients with chorea.: