Infective endocarditis

Extract

• The prompt diagnosis of infective endocarditis is important as the condition is treatable but will almost always prove fatal if left untreated.
• Diagnostics, treatment and partly also follow-up takes place within specialized care in collaboration with different specialties (cardiologist, throracic surgeon, infectious disease physician and, if needed, other specialists, such as a psychiatrist).
• Factors predisposing to endocarditis are
  • a history of severe valvular disease
  • prosthetic heart valve
  • congenital heart disease (e.g. aortic stenosis, bicuspid aortic valve, septal defect, coarctation of the aorta)
  • a history of endocarditis
  • foreign body in the cardiovascular system
  • haemodialysis
  • immunosuppression
  • bad condition of the teeth
  • use of intravenous illegal drugs.
• Should be suspected especially in febrile patients with a factor predisposing to endocarditis, bacteraemia and
  • a new heart murmur on auscultation or
  • clinical signs matching those seen in septic emboli (e.g. in the brain, lungs or skin)
  • the infection focus is unclear.
• Diagnosis is based on the clinical picture, a positive blood culture result (in 80–90% of patients with endocarditis) and echocardiography.
• In order to rule out endocarditis, echocardiography is indicated for most patients with sepsis caused by Staphylococcus aureus or candida.

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Bacterial endocarditis, Cardiology, Endocarditis, Endocarditis, Bacterial, Endocarditis, Subacute Bacterial, I33, I33.0, I33.9, I38, I39.8*, Infectious diseases, Infectious endocarditis, Infective endocarditis, Internal medicine, Prophylaxis, prosthetic endocarditis