Concurrent Acute Rheumatic Fever and Infective Endocarditis: Case Report

Abstract

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an inflammatory disease that occurs following an infection with certain strains of group A beta-hemolytic streptococci. Despite dramatic falls in the incidence, Acute Rheumatic Fever remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality associated with acquired heart disease in developing countries. Infective endocarditis (IE) is defined as a microbial infection of the endothelial surface of the heart. IE occurs most frequently in patients with chronic rheumatic heart disease. As far as we know, the simultaneous occurrence of both conditions has not been previously reported. References to our outpatient clinic with complaints of fever and joint pain, clinical and laboratory findings suggestive of infective endocarditis fits both with both the ARF and remitted entirely with appropriate treatment, as far as we know, we think that this is not a case of our similar event in the literature. Here we present a case of a fifteen-year-old girl with concurrent acute rheumatic fever and infective endocarditis.