Rheumatic fever and its sequelae rheumatic heart disease are important causes of morbidity in New Zealand, particularly for Māori and Pacific New Zealanders. In recent years, the use of echocardiographic ultrasound has been applied to several thousand non-symptomatic school-aged children, with a view to identifying those who have underlying (undiagnosed) rheumatic heart disease. Our programme of work in this area includes investigations into the benefits and harms of screening an asymptomatic population for the presence of rheumatic heart disease, as well as work around rheumatic heart disease screening literacy.
Visit our Rheumatic heart disease publications in OUR Archive
Projects
Between 2013 and 2016, our research group collaborated with Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) to perform an evaluation of an echocardiography screening pilot programme which took place over the past several years. The evaluation was part of a larger project relating to rheumatic heart disease being led from ADHB ('The significance of rheumatic heart disease detected by echocardiography').
- Benefits and harms of rheumatic heart disease screening study
- Rheumatic heart disease screening with echocardiography – an evaluation of the latest evidence against the National Health Committee screening criteria. (Peter Murray)