Infective endocarditis in pregnancy has a low incidence, often being associated with a previous history of rheumatic or congenital heart disease. In most reports the disease tends to run a subacute course and to appear more frequently in the third trimester of pregnancy. We present the case of a 36-year-old woman with large vegetations on the mitral valve due to infective endocarditis detected ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Compared with conventional treatment, early surgery significantly reduced the composite end point of all-cause death and embolic events during hospitalization, but long-term data in this area are lacking. This study sought to compare long-term outcomes of early surgery with a conventional treatment strategy in patients with infective endocarditis (IE) and large vegetat...

Right heart infective endocarditis (IE) is a rare but serious complication of permanent transvenous pacing. Surgical intervention often necessary for large vegetations or when bacteremia persists despite antibiotics in addition to extraction pacing system. To evaluate outcomes patients who underwent transcatheter debulking IE-related right the setting device endocarditis. Patients with from IE ...

BACKGROUND Coxiella burnetii endocarditis is considered to be a late complication of Q fever in patients with preexisting valvular heart disease (VHD). We observed a large transient aortic vegetation in a patient with acute Q fever and high levels of IgG anticardiolipin antibodies (IgG aCL). Therefore, we sought to determine how commonly acute Q fever could cause valvular vegetations associated...

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is infrequently complicated by infective endocarditis (IE). The authors report the case of a 46-year-old woman developing IE in asymptomatic HCM. Blood cultures were positive for Streptococcus viridans. Echocardiography demonstrated: 1) a mobile (1.2 x 1 cm2) vegetation attached to the septal endocardium at the site of contact between the mitral valve leaflet a...

Objectives: Heart valves lesions and central nervous system involvement are among the most common manifestations of the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). In the present study we evaluated possible inter-relations between these manifestations in a large group of APS patients. Methods: Two hundred eighty four APS patients were retrospectively evaluated, 159 of whom had primary APS (PAPS). Cardiac-...

BACKGROUND Staphylococcus aureus causes life-threatening infections, including infective endocarditis, sepsis, and pneumonia. β-toxin is a sphingomyelinase encoded for by virtually all S. aureus strains and exhibits human immune cell cytotoxicity. The toxin enhances S. aureus phenol-soluble modulin activity, and its activity is enhanced by superantigens. The bacteriophage φSa3 inserts into the ...

BACKGROUND Heart valves lesions and central nervous system involvement are among the most common manifestations of the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). OBJECTIVE To evaluate possible interrelations between these manifestations in a large group of APS patients. METHODS 284 APS patients were evaluated retrospectively, 159 of whom had primary APS. Cardiac-CNS associations were determined for t...

Aim: To investigate the predisposing factors, demographic and clinical characteristics, echocardiographic and prognostic features, and outcomes of patients with native valve infective endocarditis (IE) in Turkey in a multicenter based study. Materials and methods: The study population consisted of 158 consecutive patients with native valve IE (NVE). Data on demographics, medical history, medica...

Background: Heart valves lesions and central nervous system involvement are among the most common manifestations of the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Objective: To evaluate possible interrelations between these manifestations in a large group of APS patients. Methods: 284 APS patients were evaluated retrospectively, 159 of whom had primary APS. Cardiac–CNS associations were determined for th...