DR. CORA LIM–MEDICAL INSIDER
Rheumatic Fever (RF), Systemic Lupus Erythmatosus, and other Diseases
(Part 1)
Rheumatic Fever. What are the major criteria for Jones Rheumatic Fever?
The major criteria are: Carditis, Migratory Polyarthritis, Sydenham’s Chorea, Subcutaneous Nodules and Erythema Marginatum.
What are the minor criteria for Jones Rheumatic Fever? These are: Fever and Arthalgia.
What is the management for Rheumatic Fever? When we talk about the management for Rheumatic Fever, we talk about its General Measures, Antirheumatic therapy, Primary Prevention and Secondary Prevention.
Systemic Lupus Erythmatosus (SLE): This is more commonly reported among (Filipinos) Orientals. This is a disease with a myriad of potential manifestations ranging from mild to severe/life threatening; usually presents with proximal muscle weakness; characteristic rashes, include heliotrope rash on the eyelid.
What is SLE? Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is the most common type of lupus. SLE is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks its own tissues, causing widespread inflammation and tissue damage in the affected organs. It can affect the joints, skin, brain, lungs, kidneys, and blood vessels.
What are the WHO guidelines for rheumatic fever? One way to prevent rheumatic fever is the treatment of strep throat with appropriate antibiotics. Once a patient has been identified as having had rheumatic fever, it is important to prevent additional streptococcal infections as this could cause a further episode of rheumatic fever and additional damage to the heart valves.
Polymyositis and dermatomyositis: These are disorders of the body’s connective tissues, which include tendons, ligaments and the dense sheets of collagen-based tissue that cover the ends of the muscles.
These diseases cause swelling and tenderness in the muscles (polymyositis) and sometimes the skin (dermatomyositis). The disease causes weaknesses in the arms and legs.
What are the symptoms of this disease? The symptoms include the following: muscle weakness; contraction of the arms and legs; shortness of breath; difficulty in swallowing; muscle tenderness or pain; fever; feeling tired and weight loss, (To be continued)]