Clinical Aspects of Acute Rheumatic Fever in Pernambuco, Brazil

Rheumatic fever and subsequent rheumatic heart disease remain high in areas with high levels of poverty as in our country as in Pernambuco State, northeast of the Brasil. Clinical aspects peculiar to the disease, once easily found in rich countries, are still present in our infirmaries, including curious alterations in the electrocardiogram. Elongated QTc and cardiac arrhythmias can be recorded in about 30% of acute cases, with the possibility of sudden death. Cardiac surgery imposes itself for the cure of heart failure rebel against newly introduced drugs in medical practice.