Rheumatic fever: pathogenesis

- Connective tissue disorganisation, fragmentation, exudative inflammation, interstitial and cellular edema, vasculitis, collagen fiber fragmentation - Aschoff bodies (plasma cells, lymphocytes, eosinophilic leukocytes, fibrinoid material, macrophages) in myocardium and interstitium - persist long time, subclinical rheumatic activity -Acute period: regurgitating valves - Chronic period: sclerosis, deformation, stenotic valves, commissural fusion