Frequency & Pattern of Chronic Rheumatic Heart Disease in Patient Undergoing Echocardiography: Experience in a Tertiary Level Hospital of Bangladesh

Background: Rheumatic heart disease & rheumatic fever is important public health issue. overall incidence and prevalence of acute rheumatic fever is in downtrend in Bangladesh. But exact incidence & prevalence of chronic rheumatic heart disease (CRHD) is unknown. Objective: We wanted to find out prevalence of CRHD among adult patients undergoing echocardiography in a tertiary level hospital of Bangladesh. Methods: The study was conducted in the department of cardiology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka between January 2018 to December 2018. Echocardiography was done with VividE9® machine. Patients who underwent echocardiography for various indication on indoor and outdoor basis were screened for this study. Among them 1000 male & female patients, age between 18-65 years who had their echo done by the investigators were enrolled for analysis. CRHD was defined as per latest echocardiography guideline. Frequency & pattern of CRHD were calculated. Results: Out of 1000 patients 74 cases were diagnosed as CRHD (7.4%), among them 52 patients were female. Mitral stenosis (MS) was found in 28.3% cases, Isolated mitral regurgitation (MR) in 5.4%, MS with MR in 18.9%, Aortic stenosis (AS) in 8.1%, Aortic regurgitation (AR) in 10.85%, AS with AR in 13.5%, involvement of both aortic & mitral valve in 27%, involvement of mitral, aortic & tricuspid valve in 1.3%. Conclusion: Findings of the study will help to set public health programs for primary & secondary prevention of CRHD. Further population-based study is required to know the exact prevalence of the disease.