Rheumatic Heart Disease Symptoms

A serious medical condition is bad on its own, but when one condition leads to another and two conditions compound one another making the situation even worse is a serious grave situation to be in. Such is the case with rheumatic heart disease as it is a serious heart condition that derives from rheumatic fever, a debilitating condition that has serious effects.

Looking at Rheumatic Heart Disease:

The compounding of two or more conditions on top of each other makes treatment very difficult. It also makes the recovery time difficult and longer. As such, rheumatic heart disease is a complicated and difficult situation to deal with. Keep note that just because the situation is difficult does not mean that the situation is dire.

There are a number of ways in which rheumatic heart disease can be treated and reduced from life threatening level provided certain steps are taken to properly treat the condition. Before understanding how to treat the condition, one needs to understand the symptoms and complexities that define rheumatic heart disease.

Strep Throat* and Rheumatic Heart Disease:

Rheumatic heart disease often derives from strep throat infections. This is a cause for alarm for many people because strep throat, while often avoidable, is a fairly common condition that afflicts many people who do not treat a minor sore throat infection in time.

However, there is no reason to panic if one does contract strep throat as the possibility of contracting rheumatic heart disease from strep throat is rare, although not impossible. In fact, the sheer volume of cases of rheumatic heart disease has decreased drastically since the 1960’s.

Rheumatic Heart Disease and Heart Failure:

If rheumatic fever is contracted and leads to rheumatic heart disease, the condition can be treated in a manner that is much easier than the common treatments for other forms of heart disease. This treatment would include taking cortisteroid anti-inflammatory medication to reverse any potential cardiac problems the fever might induce. This does not rule out the possibility for the requirement for more involved treatment such as surgery, but it does represent the potential for a simple, yet effective treatment. Hopefully, an individual who contracts such a condition can avoid the complicated treatment.

*Strep throat is an acute sore throat caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes and accompanied by fever and inflammation.