Physical Activities and Rheumatic Heart Disease in Asymptomatic Patients

JAMA ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 180 (12) ◽  
pp. 1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvan R. Feinstein
BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e020140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa H Telford ◽  
Leila H Abdullahi ◽  
Eleanor A Ochodo ◽  
Liesl J Zühlke ◽  
Mark E Engel

IntroductionRheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a preventable and treatable chronic condition which persists in many developing countries largely affecting impoverished populations. Handheld echocardiography presents an opportunity to address the need for more cost-effective methods of diagnosing RHD in developing countries, where the disease continues to carry high rates of morbidity and mortality. Preliminary studies have demonstrated moderate sensitivity as well as high specificity and diagnostic odds for detecting RHD in asymptomatic patients. We describe a protocol for a systematic review on the diagnostic performance of handheld echocardiography compared to standard echocardiography using the 2012 World Heart Federation criteria for diagnosing subclinical RHD.Methods and analysisElectronic databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCOhost as well as reference lists and citations of relevant articles will be searched from 2012 to date using a predefined strategy incorporating a combination of Medical Subject Heading terms and keywords. The methodological validity and quality of studies deemed eligible for inclusion will be assessed against review specific Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 criteria and information on metrics of diagnostic accuracy and demographics extracted. Forest plots of sensitivity and specificity as well as scatter plots in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) space will be used to investigate heterogeneity. If possible, a meta-analysis will be conducted to produce summary results of sensitivity and specificity using the Hierarchical Summary ROC method. In addition, a sensitivity analysis will be conducted to investigate the effect of studies with a high risk of bias.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval is not required for this systematic review of previously published literature. The planned review will provide a summary of the diagnostic accuracy of handheld echocardiography. Results may feed into evidence-based guidelines and should the findings of this review warrant a change in clinical practice, a summary report will be disseminated among leading clinicians and healthcare professionals in the field.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42016051261.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1097-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liesl J. Zühlke ◽  
Mark E. Engel ◽  
Simpiwe Nkepu ◽  
Bongani M. Mayosi

AbstractIntroductionEchocardiography is the diagnostic test of choice for latent rheumatic heart disease. The utility of echocardiography for large-scale screening is limited by high cost, complex diagnostic protocols, and time to acquire multiple images. We evaluated the performance of a brief hand-held echocardiography protocol and computer-assisted auscultation in detecting latent rheumatic heart disease with or without pathological murmur.MethodsA total of 27 asymptomatic patients with latent rheumatic heart disease based on the World Heart Federation criteria and 66 healthy controls were examined by standard cardiac auscultation to detect pathological murmur. Hand-held echocardiography using a focussed protocol that utilises one view – that is, the parasternal long-axis view – and one measurement – that is, mitral regurgitant jet – and a computer-assisted auscultation utilising an automated decision tool were performed on all patients.ResultsThe sensitivity and specificity of computer-assisted auscultation in latent rheumatic heart disease were 4% (95% CI 1.0–20.4%) and 93.7% (95% CI 84.5–98.3%), respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the focussed hand-held echocardiography protocol for definite rheumatic heart disease were 92.3% (95% CI 63.9–99.8%) and 100%, respectively. The test reliability of hand-held echocardiography was 98.7% for definite and 94.7% for borderline disease, and the adjusted diagnostic odds ratios were 1041 and 263.9 for definite and borderline disease, respectively.ConclusionComputer-assisted auscultation has extremely low sensitivity but high specificity for pathological murmur in latent rheumatic heart disease. Focussed hand-held echocardiography has fair sensitivity but high specificity and diagnostic utility for definite or borderline rheumatic heart disease in asymptomatic patients.


MicroRNA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 09 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Justin Carlus ◽  
Fiona Hannah Carlus ◽  
Mazen Khalid Al-Harbi ◽  
Abdulhadi H Al-Mazroea ◽  
Khalid M Al- Harbi ◽  
...  

Background: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remains a major cause of cardiovascular diseases and the most devastating effects are on children and young adults. RHD is caused due to the interaction between microbial, environmental, immunologic, and genetic factors. The renin-angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) has been strongly implicated as the susceptibility pathway in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Objective: The present study investigated the modulating effect of Angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AGTR1) 1166A>C polymorphism on the RHD and its clinical features in Saudi Arabia. Methods: AGTR1 1166A>C polymorphism was genotyped in 96 echocardiographically confirmed RHD patients and 142 ethnically matched controls by TaqMan allelic discrimination method. Results: Genotype distribution of the AGTR1 1166A>C polymorphism was not significantly different between RHD and control groups. Further, AGTR1 1166A>C genotypes are not associated with the clinical features of RHD. These data support that there was no evidence for an association between AGTR1 1166A>C polymorphism and RHD in Saudi Arabia. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study that has investigated the possible association between AGTR1 1166A>C polymorphism and susceptibility to RHD and its clinical features. Even though AGTR1 gene is 1166A>C (rs5186) was reported to be associated with hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy and coronary heart disease. Present study did not find any association between AGTR1 1166A>C polymorphism and RHD in Saudi Arabia. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings.


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