Prognosis of subjects in the Framingham Study with rheumatic heart disease

One hundred thirteen of the original Framingham Heart Study cohort, aged 30 to 62 years, were identified as having valvular heart disease of presumed rheumatic etiology. All of these subjects, and a sample of age- and sex-matched controls, were accounted for during 34 years between 1950 and 1984. Although subjects with rheumatic heart disease had significantly higher mortality and serious morbidity than did those in the control group, 36 of the 113 (31.9%) rheumatic heart disease subjects survived at the end of this period as compared with 52.7% of the control subjects.