Prognostic stratification of patients with left-sided endocarditis determined at admission.

Background: The prognosis of patients with left-sided endocarditis remains poor despite the progress of surgical techniques. Identification of high-risk patients within the first days after admission to the hospital would permit a more aggressive therapeutic approach.

Methods: We designed a prospective multicenter study to find out the clinical, microbiologic, and echocardiographic characteristics available within 72 hours of admission that might define the profile of high-risk patients.

Are all echocardiographic findings equally predictive for diagnosis in prosthetic endocarditis?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the predictive value of different anatomic echocardiographic findings for diagnosis of prosthetic endocarditis.

Background: Prognosis in endocarditis has improved in recent years after the wide acceptance of new clinical diagnostic criteria. One of the most important issues in clinical diagnosis is to use echocardiography for identification of endocardial involvement, but prosthetic material impairs echo quality.

Risk of embolization after institution of antibiotic therapy for infective endocarditis.

Objectives: This study was designed to assess the risk of systemic embolization in patients with left-sided infective endocarditis, once adequate antibiotic treatment had been initiated, on the basis of prospective clinical follow-up.

Background: As one of the complications of infective endocarditis, embolization has a great impact on prognosis. Prediction of an individual patient's risk of embolization is very difficult.

Clinical, anatomic, and echocardiographic characteristics of aneurysms of the mitral valve.

This study describes the clinical, anatomic, echocardiographic, and Doppler features of 13 patients with mitral valve aneurysms. Eleven patients had definitive criteria for infective endocarditis. Transesophageal echocardiography was superior to conventional echocardiography in detecting and assessing aneurysms.

Clinical course, microbiologic profile, and diagnosis of periannular complications in prosthetic valve endocarditis.

Whether periannular extension of prosthetic valve endocarditis (abscesses, pseudoaneurysms, fistulas) is related to the etiologic agent, the clinical course and the prognosis is still unknown. Likewise, transesophageal echocardiographic accuracy in detecting periannular complications in prosthetic recipients remains unsettled. We retrospectively analyzed data from 87 patients with anatomically proven prosthetic valve endocarditis who underwent a transesophageal echocardiographic examination.