Rheumatic fever

A recurrent inflammatory disease produced by some predisposed persons’ immune response to the antigens of Group A Beta-Hemolytic Streptococcus bacteria, two or three weeks following an acute pharyngotonsillitis. The main organ affected is the heart, where it can affect the pericardium (pericarditis), the myocardium (myocarditis), or the endocarmium (endocarditis) and the acute phase may cause a pancarditis resulting in cardiac valvulopathies during the chronic phase. It also affects the skin (erythema marginatum), the joints (migratory polyarthritis), the brain (Sydenham chorea), and the subcutaneous cell tissue (subcutaneous nodules).