RESUMEN
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. Of 444 episodes, 317 left-sided endocarditis cases were included and 76 variables were assessed. Events were surgery in the active phase of the disease and in-hospital death. A stepwise logistic regression analysis was undertaken to determine variables predictive of events. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis of the clinical variables found to have statistical significance in the univariate analysis identified the following as predictive: patient referred from another hospital (odds ratio [OR]: 1.8; confidence interval [CI], 1.1-2.9), atrioventricular block (OR: 2.5; CI, 1.1-5.9), acute onset (OR: 1.7; CI, 1.1-2.9), and heart failure at admission (OR: 2.3; CI, 1.4-3.8). When the echocardiographic and microbiological variables statistically significant in the univariate analysis were introduced, the presence of heart failure at admission (OR: 2.9; CI, 1.8-4.8), periannular complications (OR: 1.8; CI, 1.1-3.1), and Staphylococcus aureus infection (OR: 2.0; CI, 1.1-3.8) retained prognostic power. Risk could be accurately stratified when combining the 3 variables with predictive power: 0 variables present: 25% of risk; 1 variable present: 38% to 49% of risk; 2 variables present: 56% to 66% of risk; and 3 variables present: 79% of risk. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of patients with left-sided endocarditis can be accurately stratified with the assessment of variables easily available within 72 hours of admission to the hospital.
Asunto(s)
Endocarditis/diagnóstico , Endocarditis/epidemiología , Admisión del Paciente , Argentina/epidemiología , Causas de Muerte , Endocarditis/clasificación , Femenino , Humanos , Modelos Logísticos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Análisis Multivariante , Pronóstico , Estudios Prospectivos , Medición de Riesgo/métodos , Índice de Severidad de la Enfermedad , España/epidemiología , Análisis de SupervivenciaRESUMEN
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. METHODS: In all, 49 patients with 58 episodes of suggested prosthetic endocarditis were prospectively studied using transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography. The patients were divided into two groups: group A, patients with 34 episodes of definite endocarditis according to Durack's criteria; and group B, patients with 24 episodes who were eventually classified as not having endocarditis, either by surgical exploration or by a mean of 32.6 months (range: 8-38 months) of follow-up. RESULTS: In group A, valve dehiscence was observed in 4 episodes of suggested endocarditis, pseudoaneurysms in 3, fistulae in 2, and moderate to severe perivalvular regurgitation in 15. No patient in group B had these abnormalities (P <.001). Vegetations were present in 17 episodes in group A (50%) versus 1 in group B (9%; P <.001); perivalvular abscesses were seen in 19 episodes in group A (56%) versus 1 in group B (P <.001). Mild perivalvular regurgitation was observed in only 1 episode for group A (3%) and in 14 episodes for group B (58%; P <.01). The presence of any of the above echocardiographic finding, when used in combination with the exclusion of mild perivalvular regurgitation, had a positive and negative predictive value for diagnosing endocarditis of 94% and 96%, respectively. Isolated mild perivalvular regurgitation had a poor positive predictive value (6%). CONCLUSION: Isolated mild perivalvular regurgitation should not be used as diagnostic criteria in patients with suggested prosthetic valve endocarditis.
Asunto(s)
Ecocardiografía , Endocarditis Bacteriana/diagnóstico por imagen , Prótesis Valvulares Cardíacas , Infecciones Relacionadas con Prótesis/diagnóstico por imagen , Adulto , Anciano , Aneurisma Falso/diagnóstico por imagen , Válvula Aórtica/diagnóstico por imagen , Insuficiencia de la Válvula Aórtica/diagnóstico por imagen , Ecocardiografía Transesofágica , Femenino , Fístula/diagnóstico por imagen , Estudios de Seguimiento , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Válvula Mitral/diagnóstico por imagen , Insuficiencia de la Válvula Mitral/diagnóstico por imagen , Valor Predictivo de las Pruebas , Pronóstico , Estudios Prospectivos , Falla de Prótesis , Dehiscencia de la Herida Operatoria/diagnóstico por imagenRESUMEN
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. METHODS: We studied 217 episodes of left-sided endocarditis that were experienced among a cohort of 211 prospectively recruited patients. According to the Duke criteria, 91% of the episodes were definite infective endocarditis. Seventy-two episodes involved infections located on prosthetic valves. All patients were studied by transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography. Clinical, echocardiographic and microbiologic data were entered in a data base. The mean follow-up interval was 151 days. RESULTS: Twenty-eight episodes (12.9%; group I) of endocarditis had embolic events after the initiation of antibiotic therapy. The remaining 189 episodes did not embolize (group II). Most emboli (52%) affected the central nervous system, and 65% of the embolic events occurred during the first two weeks after initiation of antibiotic therapy. Previous embolism was associated with new embolism (relative risk [RR] 1.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02 to 2.93; p = 0.05). There was an increase in the risk of embolization with increasing vegetation size (RR 3.77, 95% CI 0.97 to 12.57; p = 0.07). Vegetation size had no impact on the risk of embolization in streptococcal endocarditis or aortic infection. By contrast, large (> or = 10 mm) vegetations had a higher incidence of embolism when the microorganism was staphylococcus (p = 0.04) and the mitral valve was infected (p = 0.03). The increase in vegetation size at follow-up showed a higher risk for embolization (RR 2.64, 95% CI 0.98 to 7.16; p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Embolism before antimicrobial therapy is a risk factor for new emboli. The risk of embolization seems to increase with increasing vegetation size, and this is particularly significant in mitral endocarditis and staphylococcal endocarditis. An increase in vegetation size, despite antimicrobial treatment, may predict later embolism.