Acute rheumatic fever in adults
A. L. Barnert, E. E. Terry and R. H. Persellin
Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) in 53 adults was characterized by a severe,
febrile migratory polyarthritis involving primarily large joints in the
lower extremities, with evidence of an antecedent streptococcal infection.
Carditis, present in only eight (15%) of the adults, was mild and
transient. The characteristic abnormality in laboratory findings was an
erythrocyte sedimentation rate (Westergren) greater than 100 mm/hr.
Response to high-dose aspirin therapy was prompt and dramatic in all
patients. Mild andevanescent abnormalities of both renal function and
hepatic function (not aspirin-mediated) were detected in 51% and 64%,
respectively. A common disorder in San Antonio, ARF has distinctive
symptoms. It can be readily diagnosed and promptly treated. In the adult,
it is almost exclusively a syndrome of events severe but transient in the
joints, and mild and transient in the heart, kidneys, and liver.
