Key result
Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by progressive articular lesions with apparent cardiac sparing, whereas rheumatic fever presents with fleeting articular inflammation and regular cardiac complications.
The text highlights the historical distinction between rheumatic fever and rheumatoid arthritis, noting the frequent cardiac complications in the former and apparent cardiac sparing in the latter.
DURING the past century the clinical identities of rheumatic fever and the frequently encountered progressive form of articular rheumatism which is now designated rheumatoid have been established with a fair degree of certainty. However, the etiologic agents responsible for these two diseases remain unknown, and no specific tests have been devised to distinguish them. In classic instances, the clinical and pathologic manifestations of the two diseases are strikingly different. Rheumatoid arthritis in its usual form is characterized by the progressive and chronic character of its articular lesions. Joints are visibly damaged in the early stages, and this damage is apt to increase with the passage of time. From a clinical point of view, the heart usually seems to be spared. Articular inflammation of patients with rheumatic fever, on the contrary, is fleeting and migratory. After acute attacks, joints appear normal. Cardiac complications are regularly encountered in rheumatic fever and
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Edward F. Rosenberg (1950) conducted a review in Rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatic fever. Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by progressive articular lesions with apparent cardiac sparing, whereas rheumatic fever presents with fleeting articular inflammation and regular cardiac complications.
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