Evaluation of Antistreptolysin O (ASO) Titer in Rheumatoid Heart Disease Debre Berhan Referral Hospital, Ethiopia

Introduction: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remain significant causes of cardiovascular disease and mortality in children particularly in the developing countries. This study aims to evaluate ASO titer in rheumatic heart disease patients who are on secondary prophylaxis. Methods: A cross sectional study method was employed to collect blood sample from RHD patients (children) who are on secondary prophylaxis at pediatric clinic of Debre Brehan referral hospital. The blood sample was collected, transported and processed based on standard operating procedures (SOPs) for ASO titer determination. And finally, the data was analyzed using SPSS version 21and P-value less than or equal to 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Result: A total of 123 children on secondary prophylaxis for RHD; in the age range of 5-15 years are included. Of these, 65 (52.8) were male and 58 (47.2%) were female; 69 (56.1%) were from rural and 54 (43.9%) were from urban area. The highest frequency of participant 52 (42.3%) were in the age group of 9-12 years. Among participants 74 (60.2%) had history of pharyngitis. The result of ASO titer shows 78 (63.4%) were positive in antistreptolysin O slide agglutination test; 30 (24.4%) patients have 400IU/ml ASO titer, 19 (15.4%) patients have 600 IU/ml ASO titer, 17 (13.8%) patients have ASO titer 800 IU/ml and 12 (9.8%) patients have ASO titer >1000 IU/ml. Conclusion: This study suggest that in most children admitted with RHD have recent streptococcal infection as evident by raised ASO titer.