What should I do about swollen feet caused by rheumatic heart disease?

Written by Zhang Yue Mei
Cardiology
Updated on February 23, 2025
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Patients with rheumatic heart disease who experience swelling in their feet usually suffer from heart failure. First and foremost, it is important to rest and avoid excessive exertion to alleviate the burden on the heart, ensuring adequate sleep and relaxation, maintaining a pleasant mood, consuming easily digestible foods, and following a low-fat, low-salt diet, particularly avoiding high-sodium foods. Eating foods high in sodium can lead to water and sodium retention, which increases the burden on the heart and worsens swelling. In severe cases, it is necessary to use effective diuretic medications under the guidance of a doctor to reduce the cardiac load and eliminate fluid retention.

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Written by Xie Zhi Hong
Cardiology
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Can patients with rheumatic heart disease not drink a lot of water?

The early manifestations of rheumatic heart disease include rheumatic myocarditis or pericarditis, sometimes accompanied by significant pericardial effusion. In later stages, there may be thickening of the pericardium, presenting as constrictive pericarditis. Some patients may also develop severe mitral stenosis, aortic stenosis, or insufficiency. When the disease reaches a certain level of severity, the patient can experience cardiac failure and systemic sodium and water retention. In such cases, it becomes necessary to control water intake. Therefore, in the early stages of rheumatic heart disease when there is no cardiac failure, it is possible to drink more water. However, when patients experience severe cardiac failure, edema, and similar conditions, it is not advisable to drink excessive amounts of water.

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Written by Jia Qiu Ju
Cardiology
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Do rheumatic heart disease joints feel cold?

Rheumatic heart disease does not cause cold joints during an attack. The main clinical symptoms are primarily heart failure or arrhythmias. However, due to the underlying rheumatic heart disease, there is rheumatic fever. If it is in the acute phase of rheumatic fever, cold joints, swelling, and pain may occur. It is necessary to conduct further tests including rheumatic factor, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein, etc., to clarify the specific cause of the cold joints. Treatment can be directed towards the symptoms that appear. The main focus during an attack of rheumatic heart disease should be on managing heart failure and arrhythmias, maintaining heart function, reducing the burden on the heart, and controlling common arrhythmias, such as episodes of atrial fibrillation, among others.

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Written by Di Zhi Yong
Cardiology
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What should I do if rheumatic heart disease causes excessive sweating?

If patients frequently experience heart murmurs in the precordial area due to rheumatic heart disease, accompanied by palpitations, chest tightness, and sweating, it is recommended to treat with infusion therapy and use medication to control the patient's heart function. If the patient's heart function is corrected, the symptoms of sweating will also be alleviated or relieved. It is advised that patients visit a cardiology department and choose hospitalization to improve their symptoms. After treatment, long-term and regular oral medication is still needed, as this disease is prone to recurrence. Regular hospital visits for electrocardiograms and echocardiograms are also necessary. If the symptoms are severe, sometimes surgical treatment may be recommended to relieve the current sweating symptoms.

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Written by Zhang Yue Mei
Cardiology
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Can rheumatic heart disease be cured?

There are many clinical treatment methods for rheumatic heart disease, which can improve the quality of life and clinical symptoms of patients with rheumatic heart disease through dietary therapy, but cannot cure it, as rheumatic heart disease involves pathological changes in the valves. Currently, surgery is commonly used in the clinic to treat rheumatic heart disease, to improve the patient's quality of life, enhance cardiac comfort, and improve heart function. Therefore, patients with rheumatic heart disease should not overly rely on folk remedies for a cure, need to pay attention to rest, avoid overexertion to prevent increasing the cardiac burden, and treatment should be under the guidance of a doctor, using different medications according to individual characteristics.

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Written by Xie Zhi Hong
Cardiology
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Can rheumatic heart disease with enlarged heart be treated with surgery?

Patients with rheumatic heart disease generally present with valvular insufficiency or severe stenosis. If the patient's heart is enlarged and the ejection fraction significantly decreases, for example, if the left ventricular diastolic diameter is greater than 75, and the ejection fraction is less than 30%, the surgical outcome may be poor. This is particularly the case if there is associated pulmonary arterial hypertension, which may lead to no improvement in condition after surgery, indicating a poor surgical outcome. However, if the patient has severe stenosis or insufficiency of the valve function, not performing surgery could further worsen the condition.