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Updated: Feb 23, 2026

Echocardiographic Evaluation of Atrial Communications before Transcatheter Closure
Published on: February 8, 2022
Screening for rheumatic heart disease: is a paradigm shift required?
L D Hunter1, M Monaghan2, G Lloyd3
1Division of Cardiology, Tygerberg Hospital and University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa lukehunter1987@icloud.com.
Abstract:
This focused review presents a critical appraisal of the World Heart Federation criteria for the echocardiographic diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) and its performance in African RHD screening programmes. It identifies various logistical and methodological problems that negatively influence the current guideline's performance. The authors explore novel RHD screening methodology that could address some of these shortcomings and if proven to be of merit, would require a paradigm shift in the approach to the echocardiographic diagnosis of subclinical RHD.
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