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Cite this article:
Adeseye Abiodun Akintunde, Oladimeji George Opadijo. Late presentation of rheumatic heart disease: a justification for renewal of preventive methods?. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2009;3:22 Key words: Rheumatic Heart Disease, Preventive, Mitral stenosis, Pulmonary Hypertension Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/3/22/full Received: 20/10/2009 - Accepted: 29/11/2009 - Published: 29/12/2009 © Adeseye Abiodun Akintunde et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Late presentation of rheumatic heart disease: a justification for renewal of preventive methods?
Adeseye Abiodun Akintunde1,&, Oladimeji George Opadijo1
1Cardiology Unit, Dept. of Medicine, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Osogbo Osun State. Nigeria
&Corresponding Author
Dr. A.A. Akintunde, Division of Cardiology, Deptartment of Medicine, LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo. Osun State, Nigeria.
Rheumatic heart disease continues to contribute greatly to the burden of cardiovascular disease in Sub-saharan Africa despite advances in medical care. Evidence suggests that the prevalence is far greater than reported. There is therefore the need to emphasize routine screening for at-risk subjects and to appropriately institute adequate therapy and other preventive measures to avert the late and awry manifestation of the disease as presented in this case. This is a case report of one of numerous cases that may eventually suffer the same fate if urgent preventive measures are not instituted. A 20-year old Nigerian woman with past history of recurrent sore throat and a 10-year history of recurrent easy fatiguability and markedly dilated left atrium and pulmonary hypertension presented when she developed severe pulmonary hypertension. A concerted action at all levels of prevention is needed to reduce the burden of this disease among the young population in developing countries.
