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Abstract
Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) continues to be a major
health problem at many parts of the world, rheumatic valvular
heart disease, the sequel of RF, is a major cause of
cardiovascular death in pediatric age group.
Laminin, unlike other adhesive glycoproteins, is specific to
basement membranes. Thus, serum levels of this protein or its
fragments could reflect the changes observed in the basement
membranes of patients with ARF.
The aim of the present study was to detect the changes in
the serum level of laminin in cases suffering from acute
rheumatic fever in children in EL Fayoum Government. The
study included 32 cases of acute rheumatic fever aged 6-12
years of those attending Department of Pediatrics, EL-Fayoum
Teaching Hospital and 30 healthy age matchable children as
controls. Both cases and controls were subjected to thorough
history taking, full clinical examination, complete blood count,
ESR determination, C- reactive protein and estimation of
antistreptolysin O titre. Also plain X-ray chest and heart, ECG,
echocardiographic examination and determination of serum
laminin level were done.
All our cases as well as the different subgroups studied for
rheumatic fever had significantly higher serum laminin than
controls.