Aortic valve insufficiency and coronary artery narrowing in a child with polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Involvement of the cardiac valves in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is a rare but life threatening complication. We report a 9 1/2-year-old girl with rheumatoid factor positive polyarticular JRA who developed aortic insufficiency that required valve replacement. Six months later she developed angina due to narrowing of the left coronary artery, probably secondary to aortitis.