Latent Rheumatic Myocarditis

Abstract

RHEUMATIC fever, a systemic disease affecting chiefly the heart, has always been considered to be primarily a disorder of childhood with a markedly diminished incidence of initial and recurrent attacks after puberty.^{1 , 2} At the younger age levels rheumatic fever follows a variable but usually recognizable pattern, with carditis, arthralgia, chorea and subcutaneous nodules as major manifestations and with fever, abdominal pains, skin rashes, epistaxis and changes in the electrocardiogram, sedimentation rate and white-cell count as minor manifestations of the disease.³ It is also appreciated, however, that all these features may be absent in any individual case and that characteristic signs . . .