A top cause of heart valve problems is rheumatic fever – an inflammatory disease that irritates and inflames the heart, brain, skin, and joints.  Rheumatic fever typically develops after a streptococcus infection, and is most often diagnosed in children and teenagers.  The disease can cause heart failure and permanent damage to heart valves.

The disease often sets in about 20 days after an infection such as strep throat.  Symptoms may initially include abdominal pain, joint pain, fever, skin nodules, and nosebleeds.  The disease has many forms and no one test can affirmatively diagnose it; as such, doctors must perform a number of different tests to reach a conclusion as to whether the patient has rheumatic fever.  These tests include blood testing and echocardiograms.  In addition to swelling in the joints and heart, sufferers will experience skin nodules and a condition of jerky, rapid movements called chorea.

Treatment consists of antibiotics – most often penicillin.  Aspirin may also be used to reduce swelling and inflammation.  The disease often returns within the next couple years, and damage to the heart valves caused by rheumatic fever is typically permanent.  Many individuals who have suffered from the disease are candidates for minimally invasive cardiac surgery to repair the damage.  Surgical procedures can replace valves with either a mechanical (false) valve or a biological (animal tissue) valve, and heart valve replacement surgery cost is usually aided by insurance.  Heart valve replacement surgery recovery time is comparatively fast, and young people often heal quicker.  Having a minimally invasive procedure performed rather than a classic open-heart surgery makes recovery even faster.  Options about for people with all types of heart problems, and having a disease that damages the body does not necessarily mean that the body is damaged for life.