Table 1.

Frequency of Aschoff bodies in specimens obtained after elective cardiac surgery in various reports.

Reference	Patient number	Average age (years)	Percentage with Aschoff bodies (%)
(10)	15	36	67
(11)	12	n/a	25
(12)	11	n/a	36
(13)	18	36	44
(14)	43	34	74
(6)a	183	38	45
		104 patients aged 20–39 years	63
		77 patients aged >40 years	16
(15)	40	13	55
(16)	400	34	19
(17)	113	n/a	26
(18)	175	35	64
(19)a	316	178 patients aged ≤40 years	52
		117 patients aged >40 years	27
(9)	191	42	21
(8)	100	n/a	35

n/a, not available.

^aThere were missing data on age in 2 patients in the paper by Decker et al. (6) and in 21 patients in the paper by Ruebner et al. (19).