New diagnostic criteria for infective endocarditis: A study of sensitivity and specificity

Abstract

Duke's criteria for defining infective endocarditis has been shown to be more sensitive than previously adopted criteria, while maintaining a high degree of specificity. Therefore, they must be accepted as a substitute for previous criteria.

Clinicomicrobiological profile of infective endocarditis in a tertiary care center of Nepal

“…The median age of patients with endocarditis from western countries in the pre-antibiotic era was about 35 years, and in subsequent decades the age at presentation has gradually increased to >50 years. 9,21 RHD was the commonest underlying heart disease in our study that is similar to other studies from India. 3 But this is in contrary to western reports and is explained by decreased incidence of rheumatic fever there.…”

A study of infectious endocarditis in Ribeirão Preto, SP - Brazil. Analysis of cases occurring between 1992 and 1997

“…Surgical treatment was more frequently used by us than by the Swedish workers (15%) 2 . It was however less frequent than in the Brazilian study of the 1980s (34%) 14 and the Canadian study 12 with 33% of the patients, respectively. In both the Brazilian and Canadian studies, the predominant indication for surgery was serious heart failure.…”

“…In some cases, in which the transthoracic echocardiogram gave negative results, examination by the transesophageal approach showed vegetations. The percentage of patients who underwent echocardiography by us can be considered low in comparison with that in other countries, 93-100% 2,3,6,12 . The diagnostic efficiency of the echocardiogram was shown to be adequate, being equal to that observed by others 11,3 (83% and 83.9%, respectively).…”

“…IE by gram-negative rods and fungi was of low frequency 6 , similar to that observed in our study. In the study by Hogevik et al 2 IE by Streptococci predominated; in other studies, mainly those in which intravenous drug users participated, the predominant microorganism was S. aureus 3,6,12 .…”

“…Mansur et al 11 observed that the majority of their patients were between 21 and 30 years old. Cecchi et al 12 in Italy noted an average age of 40 years of their IE patients; in Sweden, Hogevik et al 2 found it to be 69 years. Our results, compared with those of the earlier Brazilian study in the 1980s, shows the average age of IE patients to have risen; this was also noted in other countries according to the European sources cited.…”