Which of the following is the earliest cardiac abnormality to develop in acute rheumatic fever?
High-Yield Explanation
Acute rheumatic fever can cause mitral regurgitation, but stenosis develops decades later. Characterestic thickening of leaflets occurs with fibrous obliteration. There is also commissural fusion, chordal fusion, and shoening, and calcium deposition on the leaflets, chordae, and annulus.