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.

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.

The impact of a peer support group for children with rheumatic heart disease in Uganda.

Objective: To assess the impact of a peer-support group on knowledge, quality of life, and social support for children with rheumatic heart disease (RHD).

Methods: Children diagnosed with RHD and receiving 4-weekly injectable penicillin were invited to participate in a monthly support group for 6 months. Pre- and post-intervention assessments included a baseline RHD knowledge assessment, a measure of health related quality of life (HRQOL) (PedsQL4.