Recurrence Rates in Rheumatic Fever

The clinical course of rheumatic fever is characterized by frequent recurrence of manifestations of the disease and a varying number of intercurrent years of freedom from symptoms. The average risk for a recurrence of rheumatic fever has never been defined. Current etiologic concepts and consequent preventive therapy are based in large measure on a comparison of the number of recurrences of rheumatic fever among experimental and control groups of rheumatic patients. The majority of reported studies have been made on small groups of patients. It is rarely possible for any one investigator to assemble a representative series of sufficient size for adequate analysis. Conclusions are frequently drawn from the summated observations of several small but apparently comparable studies. The pooling of experience is an acceptable practice, provided each study which is included represents a random selection in which experimental and control subjects have been selected alternately. This is essential in