Using a Low-Risk Population to Estimate the Specificity of the World Heart Federation Criteria for the Diagnosis of Rheumatic Heart Disease

In a US pediatric population, no children had findings of definite RHD, and 0.8% had findings of borderline RHD, most likely representing false-positive results. Although there appears to be some overlap between the findings of borderline RHD and those in the normal pediatric population, our data suggest acceptable specificity for all RHD, with excellent specificity for definite RHD.