Determining the Risk of Developing Rheumatic Heart Disease Following a Negative Screening Echocardiogram.

Screening echocardiograms can detect early-stage rheumatic heart disease (RHD), offering a chance to limit progression. Implementation of screening programs is challenging and requires further research. This is the first large-scale study assessing the risk of RHD among previous screen-negative children.

Cost-Effectiveness of Rheumatic Heart Disease Echocardiographic Screening in Brazil: Data from the PROVAR+ Study: Cost-effectiveness of RHD screening in Brazil.

Introduction: In recent years, new technologies - noticeably ultra-portable echocardiographic machines - have emerged, allowing for Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) early diagnosis. We aimed to perform a cost-utility analysis to assess the cost-effectiveness of RHD screening with handheld devices in the Brazilian context.

Methods: A Markov model was created to assess the cost-effectiveness of one-time screening for RHD in a hypothetical cohort of 11-year-old socioeconomically disadvantaged children, comparing the intervention to standard care using a public perspective and a 30-year time horizon.

Atrial fibrillation detection with a portable device during cardiovascular screening in primary care.

Introduction: A novel handheld dual-electrode stick is a portable atrial fibrillation (AF) screening device (AFSD). We evaluated AFSD performance in primary care patients referred for echocardiogram (echo).

Methods: The AFSD has a light indication of irregular rhythm and single-lead ECG recording.

Improving the accuracy of heart failure diagnosis in low-resource settings through task sharing and decentralization.

: Task sharing of TTE may improve capacity for heart failure diagnosis and management in patients in remote, low-resource settings but the impact on diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes has not been studied.: Determine feasibility and impact of non-expert training in transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) to improve the diagnosis and outcomes of patients with suspected heart failure in Uganda.: This two-part study examined an innovative training program to develop TTE competency among non-experts and used a pre-post design to determine the impact of decentralized TTE.

Effect of anaemia on the diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease using World Heart Federation criteria.

Background: There is overlap between pathological mitral regurgitation seen in borderline rheumatic heart disease using World Heart Federation echocardiography criteria and physiologic regurgitation found in normal children. One possible contributing factor is higher rates of anaemia in endemic countries.

Objective: To investigate the contribution of anaemia as a potential confounder in the diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease detected in echocardiographic screening.

Telehealth solutions to enable global collaboration in rheumatic heart disease screening.

Background The global burden of rheumatic heart disease is nearly 33 million people. Telemedicine, using cloud-server technology, provides an ideal solution for sharing images performed by non-physicians with cardiologists who are experts in rheumatic heart disease. Objective We describe our experience in using telemedicine to support a large rheumatic heart disease outreach screening programme in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

Targeted Echocardiographic Screening for Latent Rheumatic Heart Disease in Northern Uganda: Evaluating Familial Risk Following Identification of an Index Case.

Background: Echocardiographic screening for detection of latent RHD has shown potential as a strategy to decrease the burden of disease. However, further research is needed to determine optimal implementation strategies. RHD results from a complex interplay between environment and host susceptibility.