Strep Throat: One of the Causes of Rheumatic Heart Disease

While considering the primary causes of rheumatic heart disease, rheumatic fever tops the list as a causative of rheumatic heart disease. Rheumatic fever develops with streptococcus or strep throat infection initially. This leads to rheumatic fever, which further causes rheumatic heart disease.

Therefore, when strep throat infection occurs, it needs to be treated effectively, thus preventing it from developing further as a cause of rheumatic heart disease. This is important because if the infection is not cured early on, it has chances of developing into rheumatic fever later on and the heart valves can be damaged by this infection, causing rheumatic heart disease.

Pressure Increases on the Heart

Rheumatic heart disease causes the heart valves to be damaged. This makes it difficult for the heart to carry on with its normal functioning. To cope up with such a situation, the heart walls become enlarged and thickened. This way it tries to manage the extra pressure which the heart has to handle due to damage of the valves during rheumatic heart disease.

Some of the other causes of rheumatic heart diseases are infections from viruses or bacteria. Malarial infection can also be considered as a cause of rheumatic heart disease. Leukemia and malignant condition of lymphoma can also cause rheumatic heart disease.

While some doctors like to argue that the cause of rheumatic heart disease can be found in the genetic make up of an individual and is responsible for its occurrence; some others believe that the infection caused by strep throat is responsible for it. The immune cells fail to distinguish between streptococcus cells and the body's cells when the infection takes place. This leads to an attack on the body cells by immune system, causing rheumatic heart disease. Hence we see that the inability to distinguish between the two types of cells in the body is the main factor which contributes in the development of rheumatic heart disease.

The diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease is done by observing the presence of strep throat infections. Presence of strep bodies is verified when a patient undergoes throat culture or blood test. This indicates whether rheumatic heart disease is present in him.