[Rheumatic fever, a disease undergoing change, based on the experience of the past 15 years]

The authors reviewed the records of paediatric patients treated at the cardiology department of the Svábhegyi Gyermekgyógyintézet during the period from 1 January 1979 to 31 December 1993. All the patients elected for the survey had rheumatic fever and represented about 20 percent of the national patient pool. Among the 62 children referred for suspected rheumatic fever 26 had carditis, and 3 suffered from pancarditis. Two children had chorea minor with carditis and there were 2 additional cases with chorea minor only. Valvular heart disease has developed in 21 patients. There were 16 patients with mitral regurgitation, these conditions have occurred in combination with mitral stenosis in 3 cases, whereas the insuffitientia of the aortic valve developed in two patients. The authors analysed the clinical signs of the patients and established that the chronic syndromes came in front. The authors have observed a favourable trend in the epidemiology of the disease, in particular, while 34 patients were referred during the first 5 years, there were only 18 cases in the second 5-years period. During the interval from 1989 to 1993, only 10 children with rheumatic fever have been referred to or treated at the authors' institute.