[The results of the indomethacin treatment of patients with acute rheumatic fever].

The authors describe the results of studying the anti-inflammatory effect of indomethacin in 102 young men suffering from acute rheumatic fever (ARF). It has been shown that indomethacin has a remarkable anti-inflammatory effect both on the general disease manifestations and on the basic symptoms. For instance, in ARF patients, fever disappeared on days 2-4 of the treatment whereas the signs of arthritis on days 7-8 of the treatment, on the average. Besides, indomethacin produced a marked analgesic effect, since in 84% of the patients, arthralgias diminished on days 2-3 from the onset of indomethacin treatment. Practically, in all the patients, they disappeared simultaneously with arthritis phenomena. Disorders of rhythm and conduction also disappeared on days 2-4 from the treatment onset, while the end part of the ventricular complex returned to normal a little bit later (days 13-15). Subjective symptoms of rheumocarditis disappeared completely by the end of the treatment. Within the same time, dynamic mesodiastolic murmur and additional sounds also disappeared, the deadening of sounds noticeably decreased, the intensity of systolic murmur declined. The overwhelming majority of the patients demonstrated normalization of the heart size. Side effects were recorded in 11 patients. They were largely arterial hypertension, epigastric pains, dizziness and headaches which disappeared as a result of corrective therapy and a short-term reduction of the indomethacin dose.