Milleri group streptococcus--a stepchild in the viridans family.

The purpose of this investigation was to provide a comprehensive review of the pathogenic role and spectrum of disease of milleri group streptococci, with special attention to bloodstream invasion and to possible differential roles among the three species. All consecutive isolates of milleri group streptococci from any anatomic source, during a 37-month period, in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Tel-Aviv, Israel, were thoroughly investigated. Identification to the species level was performed by an automated system.

Infective endocarditis following gastrointestinal and genitourinary procedures: an argument in favour of prophylaxis.

In the 2007 American Heart Association guidelines, gastrointestinal (GI) and genitourinary (GU) procedures were removed from the indications for infective endocarditis (IE) prophylaxis. The purpose of this study was to estimate the contribution of GI and GU procedures to the occurrence of IE in order to appreciate whether this removal was justified. Among 212 episodes of IE prospectively collected during 7 y, 20 cases (9%) had invasive GI and GU procedures and 17 (8%) had dental interventions within 3 months before IE diagnosis.

Are dental procedures an important risk factor for infective endocarditis? A case-crossover study.

Although infective endocarditis (IE) is often reported to develop following dental treatment, no published data have accurately defined the risk of IE from dental procedures. The purpose of this study was to examine whether dental procedures constitute significant risk factors for endocarditis. The study population was composed of 170 hospitalized patients with infective endocarditis.

[A revolutionary change in the recommendations for antimicrobial prophylaxis of infective endocarditis (ie)].

Prophylactic use of antibiotics to prevent infective endocarditis (IE) used to be a part of the routine care of patients with almost any type of cardiac abnormality for more than 50 years. However, in the absence of placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blinded studies to evaluate its efficacy, doubts have been raised concerning its utility. It was recently concluded that IE is much more likely to result from frequent exposure to random bacteremias associated with daily activities than from bacteremias caused by invasive medical procedures; that only a small number of cases of IE are caused by bacteremia that follows dental procedure; and that prophylaxis may prevent an extremely small number of cases of IE.

Healthcare associated infective endocarditis: a distinct entity.

The terms hospital- and community-acquired infections do not cover any longer the full spectrum of acquisition of infection. Consequently, the term healthcare associated infection (HCA) has been recently introduced. In order to examine the applicability of 'HCA infection' to patients with infective endocarditis (IE), 125 episodes of culture-positive IE were categorized into 3 groups of acquisition.