Rheumatic fever
An illness that occurs following a streptococcus infection (such as a “strep throat”) or scarlet fever and predominantly affects children. Symptoms include fever, pain in the joints, nausea, stomach cramps, and vomiting. Rheumatic fever can cause long-lasting effects in the skin, joints, heart, and brain.
Rheumatic fever may be followed by Sydenham’s chorea and by symptoms characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder or a tic disorder.
The diagnosis of rheumatic fever is made by history, physical examination, laboratory testing and heart monitoring (EKG).
Treatment is usually by prophylactic antibiotics, as recurrence is common and can cause further damage to body tissues.
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Heart damage caused by rheumatic fever. Treatment involves prevention of reinfection with streptococcus and use of medications to treat any heart complications, as needed.
- Rheumatism
An older term used to describe a number of painful conditions of muscles, tendons, joints, and bones. Rheumatic conditions have been classified as localized (confined to a specific location, such as bursitis and tendonitis), regional (in a larger region, such as chest wall pain), or generalized (affecting many and diverse parts of the body, as […]
- Rheumatism, generalized
Rheumatism affecting many and diverse parts of the body, such as fibromyalgia.
- Rheumatism, localized
Rheumatism confined to a specific location, such as bursitis and tendonitis.
- Rheumatism, psychogenic
Rheumatism in which the patient reports inconsistent pains of muscles and joints that do not correspond to true anatomy and physiology. The patient is felt to have underlying psychological causes for these symptoms.