Reply to: Echocardiographic diagnosis of mitral insufficiency

Abstract

Reply To the EditorI was pleased to learn that the group at Green Lane Hospital had reached the same conclusion concerning the use of echocardiography to confirm the presence of "silent" yet abnormal left-sided valvular regurgitation in patients with acute rheumatic fever. Echocardiography may prove to be particularly useful in those patients with polyarthritis who have "soft" major manifestations and equivocal evidence of a preceding streptococcal infection. As suggested, strict criteria should be used to avoid overinterpretation, which could result in iatrogenic heart disease.9/35/58249 Reply To the EditorI was pleased to learn that the group at Green Lane Hospital had reached the same conclusion concerning the use of echocardiography to confirm the presence of "silent" yet abnormal left-sided valvular regurgitation in patients with acute rheumatic fever. Echocardiography may prove to be particularly useful in those patients with polyarthritis who have "soft" major manifestations and equivocal evidence of a preceding streptococcal infection. As suggested, strict criteria should be used to avoid overinterpretation, which could result in iatrogenic heart disease. I was pleased to learn that the group at Green Lane Hospital had reached the same conclusion concerning the use of echocardiography to confirm the presence of "silent" yet abnormal left-sided valvular regurgitation in patients with acute rheumatic fever. Echocardiography may prove to be particularly useful in those patients with polyarthritis who have "soft" major manifestations and equivocal evidence of a preceding streptococcal infection. As suggested, strict criteria should be used to avoid overinterpretation, which could result in iatrogenic heart disease. 9/35/58249