Forty children were included in this study with age ranging between 5 - 15 years. They
were divided into four groups according to clinical presentation. Group I with acute rheumatic
arthritis, group II with chorea, group III with clinical carditis and group IV with chronic heart
disease. Twenty healthy children were investigated for IL-8 and TNF-α as a control group. We found
that the serum level of IL-8 was significantly higher than the control group and in carditis than
arthritis. TNF-α was significantly higher in acute rheumatic fever than control group. The result
showed that the level of IL-8 and TNF-α were significantly higher in patients with chorea than
arthritis. These parameters also were significantly higher in rheumatic chorea than chronic rheumatic
heart disease. The recurrence of rheumatic activity and development of chronic rheumatic heart
disease was high in patients with high levels of interleukins in acute phase.

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