Fingerprints of Element Concentrations in Infective Endocarditis Obtained by Mass Spectrometric Imaging and t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding.

-induced infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening disease. Differences in virulence between distinct strains, which are partly based on the molecular mechanisms during bacterial adhesion, are not fully understood. Yet, distinct molecular or elemental patterns, occurring during specific steps in the adhesion process, may help to identify novel targets for accelerated diagnosis or improved treatment.