How To Treat Sydenham's Chorea

Close Heart Monitoring

A Sydenham's chorea patient may need to have close heart monitoring if the initial rheumatic fever has caused damage to tissues in their heart. This is an extremely important part of treatment, as the most severe complication of rheumatic fever is rheumatic heart disease, which is a condition where an individual incurs damage to their heart valves due to group A streptococcus bacteria attacking the tissues that make up the heart valves. When the heart valves become inflamed as a result of the infection, they can stretch and incur considerable damage. The valves may stay stretched, and the body repairs the tissue damage in the valve with scar tissue. These mechanisms can leave the heart valve with only some or very little of its initial function. The heart valves become unable to close properly, and blood flows backward into the wrong chamber of the heart. Patients diagnosed with Sydenham's chorea with heart valve damage are recommended to have echocardiograms every year. Some individuals with severe rheumatic heart disease may need to have echocardiograms every three to six months to detect any sudden changes that require surgical repair.