RESUMEN
PURPOSE: The most important cause of mortality and morbidity in acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is carditis and rheumatic heart disease (RHD). The aim of this study was to identify markers that may be indicators of chronic inflammation in whole blood analyses in pediatric patients with RHD who regularly received secondary deposilin prophylaxis. METHODS: In our study, 100 children with ARF aged between 4 and 18 years were followed up in the pediatric cardiology outpatient clinic of the patient group. The control group consisted of 100 healthy children of the same sex and age as the patient group. All children in the patient group regularly received deposilin prophylaxis every 21 days. Our study included many whole blood parameters that are reported in the literature to represent changes in chronic inflammatory diseases. These parameters were CRP, RDW, PDW, MPV and leukocyte subtypes, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte counts and their ratios (neutrophil/lymphocyte, platelet/lymphocyte and monocyte/lymphocyte). RESULTS: Leukocyte count, lymphocyte count, basophil count, MLR and basophil count were significantly lower in the patient group than in the control group (p: 0.047, p: 0.023, p: 0.006). In addition, eosinophil count and RDW value were significantly higher in the patient group than in the control group (p: 0.043; p: 0.001). CONCLUSION: In our study, low leukocyte, lymphocyte, basophil, MLR and higher eosinophil counts indicated that RDW could be effectively used as a marker for regular depositilin prophylaxis in pediatric patients with RHD.