The clinical picture of adult rheumatic carditis.

Abstract

SummaryIn a series of 96 cases of adult rheumatic carditis, symptoms of myocarditis were present in 70 per cent; signs of valvulitis were seen in 23 per cent, and pericarditis was the dominant clinical feature in 7 per cent. A follow-up examination was made on 55 patients, on the average 8 years after the attack of rheumatic fever. A recurrence of carditis was observed in 3 patients only, mitral heart disease with cardiac decompensation had developed in 1 patient, and in 23 patients there were some slight signs of previous carditis. In 14 of the last mentioned cases, or in 25 per cent of the patients followed up, the auscultation finding suggested an organic lesion of the mitral valve, however without other clinical or fluoroscopic changes characteristic of mitral heart disease.A relative mitral valve failure, caused by the inflammatory heart damage, was a common finding, as was indicated by several cases in which murmurs during the convalescence stage, suspicious for valvular failure still later had disa...