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The Mechanical Changes Associated with Aging in the Cardiovascular System
Published in Michel R. Labrosse, Cardiovascular Mechanics, 2018
Contrary to atherosclerotic plaque, heart valve lesions usually do not rupture but enlarge to a state where the flexibility of the heart valve leaflets is significantly reduced. Besides calcification, heart valves show other age-related pathological changes in the extracellular matrix, such as the disruption of elastic laminae and disorganized matrix (especially collagen) deposition and remodeling (Butcher et al., 2011; Leopold, 2012), which, to some extent, may resemble arteriosclerosis rather than atherosclerosis. The development of heart valve dysfunction may also be linked to rheumatic fever (the most important cause of the heart valve diseases in the first half of the twentieth century) and infective endocarditis.
Housing conditions and health in Indigenous Australian communities: current status and recent trends
Published in International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 2021
The four selected disease types were (i) shigellosis, (ii) helminthiases, (iii) trachoma, and (iv) acute rheumatic fever. Shigellosis is an intestinal infection that is notifiable in NT and is caused by Shigella bacteria. It is transmitted by the faecal-oral route, and tends to reflect poor hygiene and sanitation conditions. In-depth (albeit occasional) syntheses of enteric disease notifications in NT provide Indigenous-specific shigellosis rates for children between 0 and 4 years (the age group that bears a disproportionately high shigellosis disease burden). Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) has been linked to streptococcal skin infections (McDonald et al. 2004), which in turn are commonly preceded by scabies infestation. ARF is a notifiable disease in NT, and Indigenous-specific rates are reported in tables supplementary to the national health performance framework report (AIHW 2017). A range of helminth infections – hookworm (A. duoedenale), whipworm (T. trichiura), Strongyloides stercoralis, and dwarf tapeworm (H. nana) – have recently been subject to longitudinal assessments in the academic literature (Davies et al. 2013; Crowe et al. 2014; Willcocks et al. 2015; Mayer-Coverdale et al. 2017). All four helminths are transmitted via human faeces and hence indicate inadequate sanitation. Finally, trachoma is an infectious eye disease for which face washing is a key prevention measure. Trachoma has been the subject of a large-scale screening and treatment programme in remote Indigenous communities since 2006, and annual reports present prevalence estimates for Indigenous children 5–9 years at a regional level.
State of child health: acute rheumatic fever in Aotearoa New Zealand
Published in Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2023
Glenda Oben, Mavis Duncanson, Judith Adams, Tara Satyanand
Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is included within the list of potentially avoidable conditions as it has the potential to be prevented through primary healthcare interventions for streptococcal throat and skin infections (Jack et al. 2018; Karthikeyan and Guilherme 2018; Bennett et al. 2021a; Oliver et al. 2021). In other developed countries, hospitalisations for ARF are almost non-existent (Seckeler and Hoke 2011).