RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RHEUMATIC AND SUBACUTE BACTERIAL ENDOCARDITIS

Abstract

It is well known that a heart once damaged by rheumatic disease is more liable to subsequent infection, especially with nonhemolytic streptococci. In a review of 330 cases of subacute bacterial endocarditis, Blumer¹found that 168, or 50 per cent, of the patients had a definite history of rheumatism (140), chorea (10) and tonsillitis (18). In 20 cases of streptococcus viridans endocarditis that were analyzed by Thayer^2aand that came to necropsy, 65 per cent of the patients had a history of rheumatism or chorea.^2bIn a survey of 115 cases of subacute bacterial endocarditis collected from the records of the Presbyterian Hospital (New York), Lamb³noted 94 patients (82 per cent) who were known to have had cardiac damage, and of these, 69, or 60 per cent of the entire series, gave a history of rheumatism. In a group of 111 cases of subacute bacterial