Acute rheumatic fever 1
In the mid-1980's there were reports of outbreaks of Acute rheumatic fever(ARF) in several areas of the United States and subsequently similar reports emerged from Europe. In January 1988, under the auspices of the BPSU, all paediatricians in the British Isles were asked to report any new cases of ARF seen during 1987; only nine were reported. Case ascertainment via such retrospective reporting was felt to be unsatisfactory so a 12 month prospective study was undertaken during 1990 with the main aim of determining the annual incidence of ARF in children less than 16 years in the British Isles.
Lead investigator
Dr C Boyd-Scobie & Dr S Hall
About the study
In the mid-1980’s there were reports of outbreaks of Acute rheumatic fever(ARF) in several areas of the United States and subsequently similar reports emerged from Europe. In January 1988, under the auspices of the BPSU, all paediatricians in the British Isles were asked to report any new cases of ARF seen during 1987; only nine were reported. Case ascertainment via such retrospective reporting was felt to be unsatisfactory so a 12 month prospective study was undertaken during 1990 with the main aim of determining the annual incidence of ARF in children less than 16 years in the British Isles.
It was hoped that a comparison of the reported cases with the returns from the Kormer data sets would provide an index of the usefulness of the latter as a source of these data. The preliminary analysis suggested that there are a number of cases in whim there is an overlap between “classic” ARF and the increasingly recognised entity of post-streptococcal reactive arthritis. The investigators had hoped to review the applicability of the Jones criteria in the light of the cases reported and to draw attention to the broader spectrum of post-streptococcal disease.
Duration
January 1990 – December 1990
Published papers
BPSU Fifth Annual Report 1990
Advice/Support Group