In 1924 Libman and Sacks published an account of atypical, sterile, verrucous vegetations on the heart in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). [1] Clusters of verrucae, looking like mulberries, were described on the ventricular surface of the posterior leaflet of the mitral valve and found at postmortem. The leaflet and the chordae tendinae are often adherent to the endocardium of the ventricula...

Surface inhomogeneities, including boundaries between different types of vegetations and land use patterns, have important effects on the structure of the atmospheric boundary layer. Changes in the surface roughness, temperature and wetness make the planetary boundary layer (PBL) nonhomogeneous and produce substantial horizontal gradients of boundary layer properties. Significant differences in...

The name mycotic aneurysm was coined by Osler to describe aneurysms associated with bacterial endocarditis with an appearance of fresh fungal vegetations; however majority of them are caused by bacteria. Mycotic aneurysm (MA) is a rare complication of infective endocarditis (IE), seen in 3-15% of IE patients.

We report a case of a 55 year-old female with chronic renal failure who received routine haemodialysis and suffered from acute myocardial infarction of inferior wall. Based on coronary angiogram, transoesophageal echocardiography, and autopsy,coronary embolisation with vegetations in the course of infective endocarditis was identified as a rare cause of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

A subaortic membrane predisposes to bacterial endocarditis usually affecting the aortic valve and left ventricular outflow tract. Endocarditis involving the subaortic membrane itself has been described twice only; once at operation and once at postmortem. The case of a man with vegetations involving a subaortic membrane that were detected preoperatively and the echocardiographic appearances of ...

This study evaluated the activity of daptomycin combined with either gentamicin or rifampin against three methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clinical isolates in vitro and one isolate in vivo against a representative strain (MRSA-572). Time-kill experiments showed that daptomycin was bactericidal against these strains at concentrations over the MIC. Daptomycin at sub-MIC concent...

OBJECTIVES The study evaluated the additional benefit of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) versus transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in pediatric cases with suspected bacterial endocarditis. BACKGROUND In adult patients, TTE has a lower sensitivity and specificity than TEE for the detection of vegetations or aortic root abscess formation. Few data are available about the relative benef...

AIMS Infective endocarditis (IE) is characterized by septic thrombi (vegetations) attached on heart valves, consisting of microbial colonization of the valvular endocardium, that may eventually lead to congestive heart failure or stroke subsequent to systemic embolism. We hypothesized that host defense activation may be directly involved in tissue proteolytic aggression, in addition to pathogen...

BACKGROUND Platelets are integral to cardiac vegetations that evolve in infectious endocarditis. It has been postulated that the antiplatelet aggregation effect of aspirin (ASA) might diminish vegetation evolution and embolic rates. METHODS AND RESULTS Rabbits with Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis were given either no ASA (controls) or ASA at 4, 8, or 12 mg. kg-1. d-1 IV for 3 days beginnin...

A 38 year old woman previously known to have a heart murmur presented with malaise and bloodstained sputum. Echocardiographic examination showed a subpulmonary ventricular septal defect and probable vegetations on the pulmonary valve, and blood cultures grew Escherichia coli. She made a full recovery after 6 weeks' antibiotic treatment.