Rheumatic Fever eMedicine Infectious Diseases

Description: Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an autoimmune inflammatory process that develops as a sequela of streptococcal infection. ARF has extremely variable manifestations and remains a clinical syndrome for which no specific diagnostic test exists. Persons who have experienced an episode of ARF are predisposed to recurrence following subsequent (rheumatogenic) group A streptococcal infections. The most significant complication of ARF is rheumatic heart disease, which usually occurs after repeated bouts of acute illness.
ARF is characterized by nonsuppurative inflammatory lesions of the joints, heart, subcutaneous tissue, and central nervous system.
Wallace, Lutwick & Ravishankar