Tag Archives: mitral stenosis

Case A 63-year-old woman presented with breathlessness for a week. She had had a right mastectomy and axillary node clearance three weeks previously for breast cancer. She was known to have rheumatic heart disease and mitral stenosis with history of balloon mitral valvuloplasty 12 years ago. An echocardiogram, which was performed four months before, showed moderate mitral stenosis with valve area of 1.2 cm2, moderate aortic stenosis with peak gradient across aortic valve of 42 mmHg and mean of 22 mmHg and mild tricuspid regurgitation with normal pulmonary artery pressure. She was also known to have permanent atrial fibrillation and was on w

Introduction Rheumatic fever is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children and young adults in the world.1,2 The relationship between rheumatic fever and streptococcal infection has been well documented.3,4 Stenosis of the mitral valve, either alone or in combination with other valvular diseases, is caused almost exclusively by rheumatic fever.3 Involvement of the mitral valve represents the most common of all sites affected by the rheumatic process.5 However, as many as half of the population with mitral stenosis give no history of rheumatic fever.5 On the other hand, the majority of patients with mitral stenosis remain asympto

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