Rheumatic fever – new diagnostic criteria

Rheumatic fever (RF) is an autoimmune disease associated with group A β-hemolytic streptococcal infection, in the course of which the patient develops carditis, arthritis, chorea, subcutaneous nodules and erythema marginatum. Rheumatic fever diagnosis is based on the Jones criteria, developed in 1944, then revised twice by the American Heart Association (AHA), in 1992 and recently in 2015. The last revision of the Jones criteria consists mainly in the supplementation of the major criteria with echocardiographic examination, the introduction of a concept of subclinical carditis and the isolation of low, medium and high risk populations among the patients. AHA recommends that all the patients with suspected RF undergo Doppler echocardiographic examination after the Jones criteria have been verified, even if no clinical signs of carditis are present.