What Exactly Is Rheumatic Heart Disease?

What is rheumatic heart disease?

When rheumatic fever affects the heart, this is called rheumatic heart disease. Rheumatic heart disease is the damage to the valves that makes the heart weak.

The heart has 4 sections, which are like 'rooms' also called chambers. The heart valves are the 'doors' that stop the blood from flowing the wrong way. When the heart pumps, blood flows from one chamber to the next.

What happens if I have rheumatic heart disease?

If rheumatic fever has affected your heart, you may also be under the care of a cardiologist (heart doctor). They may ask you to have a heart scan (echocardiogram) regularly. This is so they can see how your valves are working. If your valve is very damaged, you may need surgery to repair or replace the valve. The cardiologist and healthcare team can give you more information if this is the case.

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The illustration shows a cross-section of the heart with two detailed views comparing normal and abnormal blood flow.

On the left is the main heart diagram labelled Right atrium, Right ventricle, Left atrium, and Left ventricle. A small circle highlights the mitral valve between the left atrium and left ventricle.

A magnified view at the top right shows a Normal mitral valve with arrows indicating the normal direction of blood flow from the left atrium into the left ventricle.

A second magnified view below shows Rheumatic heart disease, where the damaged mitral valve allows blood to flow backward into the left atrium. Arrows show blood leaking back through the valve.

At the top right is the KidsHealth logo with the website: kidshealth.org.nz.

Unhealthy valves are sometimes referred to as 'leaky valves'. This means the blood is leaking between the chambers in the heart. It does not mean blood is leaking out of the heart into the body.