Guidelines for diagnosis of rheumatic fever. Major manifestations are carditis, polyarthritis, chorea, erythema marginatum, and subcutaneous nodules. Minor manifestations are fever, arthralgia, previous rheumatic fever or rheumatic heart disease, elevated sedimentation rate or positive C-reactive protein, and prolonged PR interval. Presence of 2 major criteria or 1 major and 1 minor criterion establishes diagnosis.