Cardiovascular & hematological disorders drug targets
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Infective endocarditis (IE) is a lethal disease if not promptly treated with antibiotics, either in association with surgery or not. The incidence of disease has not decreased over the last decades due to the change of risk conditions. Complications of IE may involve cardiac structures when the infection spreads within the heart, or extra cardiac ones when the cause is usually from embolic origin; they may also be due to medical treatment or to the septic condition itself. ⋯ Echocardiography, mainly from transesophageal (TEE) approach, has significantly improved the evaluation of IE allowing to detect the specific signs of the disease as vegetations, abscesses, valve insufficiency, prosthetic valve dehiscence, fistulas. In our 3rd referral Hospital (Lancisi Heart Hospital, Ancona, Italy) we performed a follow-up (mean 8.26 years) of 15 patients with periannular complications associated with IE. The long term follow-up showed low mortality rate, high incidence of reintervention, improved New York Heart Association (NYHA) class in survivors and no changes of the lesions at the echocardiographic examination, suggesting that periannular complications have not significantly influenced the overall survival in our patients at the follow-up.