The Natural History of Rheumatic Heart Disease in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Decades of Life

Abstract

The object of this study is to provide information on the natural course of rheumatic heart disease in the third, fourth, and fifth decades of life. It is concerned with 757 out of 1,042 children under observation during the years 1916 to 1956 who reached the age of 20 or more years. The major manifestations of rheumatic fever experienced by these patients from the onset of the disease is related to the degree of residual cardiac damage. Survival to successive ages was analyzed with respect to sex, type of valvular lesion, and degree of cardiac enlargement.