Acute Rheumatic Fever

The choice of specialist starts with the heart: the cardiologist, and in children the pediatric cardiologist, is the one who monitors acute rheumatic fever, an inflammatory response that can appear weeks after certain throat infections and that can affect the heart, the joints, the skin, and the nervous system.

Common symptoms: It usually presents with fever, pain and inflammation of joints that shift location, tiredness and, at times, manifestations on the skin.

Common causes: It is related to previous streptococcal infections not treated in a timely manner.

When to see the doctor? If joint pain and fever appear after a throat infection, an evaluation is important to protect the heart. The dermatologist may join in when there are characteristic skin lesions; in the presence of these signs, the prudent step is to seek care without delay.