PANDAS and rheumatic heart disease

[Kiera]

Just wondering for those of you who've seen the expert PANDAS Drs, with initial visit, do they have your child checked for effects on the heart? Is it common to have rheumatic heart affects as well as brain affects? Is it part of an initial evaluation to check for strep effects there? Thanks.

[eljomom]

Never been suggested to us, although I do wonder. My father-in-law had it, and it caused enough damage to give him a massive heart attack at age 41, and died at 44.

[Worried_Dad]

Our ds had both an electrocardiogram and echocardiogram at different times to check for this. Thankfully, everything tested normal.

Edited September 20, 2011 by Worried Dad

[AmySLP]

My daughter saw Dr. Latimer initially & we were set up with her colleague the day after (b/c we were in town from NY)to r/o RF. Her biggest concern was that we believe my daughter went at least 2 months with undiagnosed strep based on her med history. Didn't sound like this was routine at the time (that was 3 yrs ago) & fortunately my daughter's heart was unaffected.

 

Amy

[amyjoy]

in our office where we've seen around 15 -20 pandas kids this past year, we haven't found rheumatic heart disease in a single one. i was thinking about that recently. we were originally worried about that with my son's PANDAS because one of his pediatricians thought he heard a heart murmur but his heart is fine and no one else ever heard the murmur. i wonder also about potential kidney damage that can come from rheumatic fever, but haven't seen that either, except one person.