Why the study?
Does echocardiographic screening using World Heart Federation criteria identify a higher prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in high-risk Indigenous Australian children compared to low-risk non-Indigenous children?
Population
4,999 children aged 5 to 15 years in Australia, comprising 3,946 high-risk Indigenous children living in…
Comparison
Portable echocardiography screening using World… vs Low-risk non-Indigenous children.
Design
Cross-sectional, Echocardiograms were reported in a standardized, blinded…
Authors
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Supports targeted screening in high-risk Indigenous children; leaves open the prognostic implications of borderline RHD and need for longitudinal data.
Does echocardiographic screening using World Heart Federation criteria identify a higher prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in high-risk Indigenous Australian children compared to low-risk non-Indigenous children?
Echocardiographic screening using World Heart Federation criteria effectively identifies definite RHD in high-risk populations, while borderline RHD is found in both high- and low-risk groups, requiring further longitudinal evaluation.
Roberts et al. (2014) studied this question.