[Aortic rheumatoid insufficiency. 3 cases and review of the literature]

The authors report on three cases of rheumatoid aortic valve insufficiency. The three patients had classic sero-positive rheumatoid arthritis. In one patient aortic valve insufficiency and pericarditis occurred simultaneously; aortic valve insufficiency appeared in two patients less than two years and in the third patient 17 years after the beginning of arthritis. In the first two cases, the aortic regurgitation evaluated by echocardiography and angiography was not severe enough to require valvular replacement. In the third patient, rheumatoid granuloma of the aortic valve caused fatal aortic insufficiency.