Preventing Rheumatic Heart Disease

All families in the world have their own personal family risk factors pertaining to their health. These risk factors come from generations that are then sometimes passed down to the newer generations of the family. Some of these risk factors that families have could be diseases or cancers that can unfortunately take one’s life to soon because it attacks their body a certain way and causes it to shut down. But, many families could possibly overcome these risk factors they may have by changing their life styles and not following in the steps of earlier generations. My family risk factor, heart disease, will be discussed through the risk factor, how life style might play a role in the risk factor, what can be done to help lower the chances

3) Is her history of rheumatic fever relevant to her current symptoms? Explain. Rheumatic fever caused by Group A Streptococcus bacteria may cause damage to heart tissues including valves. Overtime, congestive heart failure may have developed. However, the pulmonary semilunar valve seems to be the issue in this case study, whereas rheumatic fever normally affects left heart tissue.

According to the WHO, cardiovascular diseases have been the leading cause of death globally claiming 17 million lives a year, more deaths than all cancer combined (Chiu and Radisic, 2013). Cardiovascular disease is responsible for a preponderance of health problems and its impact is expected to grow further as the population ages. In the UK, NHS spends about £7.74 billion as the expenditure to deal with cardiovascular diseases (Barton et al., 2011). Cardiovascular disease in the form of myocardial infarction has become the principle cause of death in developed countries, accounting for nearly 40% of all deaths (http://www.bhf.org.uk/). Congenital heart defects, which occur in nearly 14 of every 1000 new-born children, is another tragic fact that baffles medical industry (http://www.heart.org/). About 61 million Americans (almost one-fourth of the population) live with cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease, congenital cardiovascular defects, and congestive heart failure.

Cardiovascular disease has reportedly been the number one disease killer for men and women in the United States of America. Every one out of four deaths is caused by heart disease in the United States alone (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention). Heart disease refers to the different types of conditions and symptoms that can affect the one’s heart and its functions to the body (Mayo Clinic). Cardiovascular/Heart disease has many causes and conditions, prevention methods and symptoms, and treatment options.

If a streptococcal infection such as pharyngitis or scarlet fever is left untreated, there is a small (~3%) chance that within approximately 20 days, the patient will present with rheumatic fever. After the first bout of rheumatic fever, if the host acquires a second untreated S. Pyogenes infection, the chance of coming down with rheumatic fever jumps substantially to ~50%. Most often this secondary disease will strike people aged 6-15 years old, roughly 20 days after the streptococcal infection, with a 2-5% mortality rate. One of the major diagnostic symptoms of this disease is Erythema Marginatum, snake- or ring-like eruptions covering the trunk, upper arms, and legs. Other symptoms include fever, arthritis (elbows, knees, wrists, and ankles), swollen joints, pain in the abdomen, nodules

A 32-year old nurse who has rheumatic fever as a child noticed a persistent tachycardia and light-headedness. Upon examination, chest x rays showed an enlarged left atrium and left ventricle. ECG analysis showed atrial fibrillation. There was also mild pulmonary congestion. Cardiac evaluation resulted in the following information:

Strep throat is an infection of the tonsils and/or throat caused by the bacteria streptococcus pyogenes (group A strep), and streptococcal bacteria are highly contagious. Symptoms include sore throat, fever, and trouble swallowing. Children may also experience stomachache, vomiting, and headache. Signs of strep throat are white dots on the tonsils, and/or redness in the throat. How is strep throat spread? It can be spread through the air when someone with strep throat coughs, sneezes, or breathes.

Rheumatic heart disease is a complication of rheumatic fever in which the heart valves are damaged. Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that begins with strep throat. It can affect connective tissue throughout the body, especially in the heart, joints, brain and skin. Although rheumatic fever can strike people of all ages, it is most common in children between 5 and 15 years old. The best way to prevent rheumatic fever is to treat strep

Rheumatic fever is a disease that can occur following an infection caused by the Group A streptococcus bacterium. If untreated, an infection such as ‘strep throat’ may lead to a delayed complication featuring widespread inflammation in other parts of the body, particularly the joints, heart, skin and brain.

Rheumatic heart disease- is as a result of a bacterial infection as a child, resulting in pain in the chest and joints, also affecting heart valve functionality.

Strep Throat is an infection of the tonsils and pharynx. Its symptoms include: sore throat, high fever, chills, headache, swollen lymph nodes and trouble swallowing. This disease usually effects school aged children. It is very contagious, and is spread through close contact with those individuals coughing and sneezing. Once strep is identified as the pathogen, with a rapid strep test, the doctor will prescribe a drug in the penicillin family as treatment. Penicillin attacks the cell wall of the bacteria as it is trying to replicate. This decreases the amount of new bacteria forming in the body, giving the immune system time to attack the foreign agent.

Streptococcal Pharyngitis in Children is an illness most commonly known as ‘strep throat’. Even though a person of any age can get infected with strep throat it is very common in children. There have been many myths as to what causes strep throat and many times children go untreated or under diagnosed. Throughout this informational report it will be provided basic information about streptococcal pharyngitis that researchers and Medical Providers have left for the audience to review, as well as first line of treatments that are most commonly used when a patients strep test is warranted positive, in addition statistics will be included on children vs. adult treatments and symptoms.

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a serious and potentially fatal disease that requires the use of bactericidal antibiotics. The pathogens of IE include streptococcus, staphylococcus, enterococcus and HACEK genus and the like. Streptococcus is the most common of them. Infective endocarditis should be confirmed pathogens before treatment, heart conditions of IE patients are also very important. Whether the patient’s heart valve has been replacing and site of infected valves will affect subsequent treatment options, background information of patients should be confirmed before treatment. Common infective endocarditis treatment guidelines around the world are the American Heart Association (American Heart Association; AHA), European Society of Cardiology

Coronary heart disease is a long-term degenerative disease that starts at birth. Coronary heart disease is a leading public health problem in the UK in terms of the economic burden from the disease placed on the NHS. The average cost of a hospital admission for a CVD event is estimated to be £4,614 . The largest contributor to the growing economic problem is the treatment of heart diseases, such as CHD as more than £6.8 billion was spent on treating cardiovascular disease within the NHS in England in 2012/13 . Taking medication is the most popular method of treatment with examples including, Cholesterol-modifying medications (which decrease the amount of cholesterol in the blood with a range of medications, including statins), Beta blockers (which regulate the heart rate to prevent any abnormal rhythms), Warfarin (which prevent blood clotting making thrombosis less likely all resulting in lowering blood pressure).

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in women mentioned in chapter 4. As mentioned in the chapter that women tend to be older than men when they have their first cardiac event. Remedies that are mentioned in chapter 4 are 1) preventing or controlling hypertension, 2) lowering cholesterol levels and, 3) weight management to lower ones risk for heart disease.