Survival patterns of children with rheumatic heart disease

We eranined the survival curves of patients v'ith established rheunatic heart disease treated at the Division of Cardiology, Departntent of Child Health, Faculty of Medicine University of Itrdonesia Cipto Mangunkusunto Hospital, Jakarta during the period of January 1983 until Decenber 1992. There were 359 patients availablefor analysis. At the end of the 120-nonth observation,6g,I % patients were still alive. Conparisons of several curves based on certain characteristics showed that age at the tine of tliagnosis and the nunùer of valves involved were associated wilh survival, while sex, parental education, or nutritional status were not. Closer exatnination of 177 patients t'ho had conpleted 5 )'ears of follov,-up, both using univariate and nultivariate analyses (logistic regression analysis) confirtned the results of sun'ival anab'ses. We conclude that age at the tine of diagnosis and the nuntber of valvar int'olvernent are sîrong detertuinants for the prognosis of children v'ith rheunntic heart disease.