American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 102, No. 1: 42-46
Copyright © 1975 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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HOST FACTORS IN THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF RHEUMATIC PATIENTS TO STREPTOCOCCAL INFECTIONS1
2Yale University School of Medicine 333 Cedar St., New Haven, CT Clinical Biostatistics and Co-Operative Program Support Center, Veterans Administration Hospital West Haven, CT.
3Irvington House, New York University School of Medicine New York, NY
4New York University School of Medicine New York, NY
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Feinstein, A. R. (Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06511), M. Spagnuolo and A. Taranta. Host factors in the susceptibility of rheumatic patients to streptococcal infections. Am J Epidemiol 102:42–46, 1975.—In children and adolescents who each had at least one previous episode of rheumaticfever and who were not maintaining effective anti-streptococcal prophylaxis, the attack rates of subsequent streptococcal infections declined with advancing age, but were unaffected by gender, cardiac status, or multiplicity of antecedent rheumatic episodes. The rate of rheumatic recurrence per streptococcal infection fell with advancingage, but rose with increasing amounts of cardiac damage and with multiplicity of previou rheumatic attacks. The results suggest that the underlying clinical features of the host have a greater effect on the rheumatogenicity of an acquired streptococcal infection thanon the ability to avoid the infection.
host factors; host susceptibility; rheumatic fever; rheumatic heart disease; streptococcal infections
1From Irvington House, New York, NY and the Co-Operative Studies Program Support Center, West Haven Veterans Administration Hospital. Supported in partby Grant No. HE-12976-17 from the National Heart and Lung Institute, Bethesda, Md, and byPHS Grant No. HS 00408 from the National Center for Health Services Research and Development.