A case of adult-onset acute rheumatic fever with long-lasting atrioventricular block requiring permanent pacemaker implantation

A 45-year-old hypertensive Japanese woman presented with epigastric pain on inspiration, fever, complete atrioventricular block and polyarthritis. Her antistreptolysin O levels were markedly elevated. A diagnosis of rheumatic fever was made according to the modified Jones criteria. She was prescribed loxoprofen sodium, which was partially effective for her extracardiac clinical symptoms. However, she had syncope due to complete atrioventricular block with asystole longer than 10 seconds. Consequently, we implanted a permanent pacemaker. Although we prescribed prednisolone, the efficacy of which was limited for the patient’s conduction disturbance, the complete atrioventricular block persisted. In our systematic review of 12 similar cases, the duration of complete heart block was always transient and there was no case requiring a permanent pacemaker. We thus encountered a very rare case of adult-onset acute rheumatic fever with persistent complete atrioventricular block necessitating permanent pacemaker implantation.