Case Report Open Access

A Case of a Young Patient with Acute Endocarditis and Challenging Diagnostic and Treatment Decisions

Pau Rello1, Teresa González-Alujas2, Laura Escolà-Vergé1, Albert Roque1, Carlos Sureda1, Toni Soriano-Colomé1, Gerard Oristrell1, Antonia Sambola1 and Ignacio Ferreira-González3
  • 1 Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Spain
  • 2 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
  • 3 CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Spain

Abstract

Despite advances achieved in recent years, Infective Endocarditis (IE) remains a disease associated with high mortality and morbidity. When it involves multiple locations at the same time, deciding the best treatment can become challenging. In some cases, especially in patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis, a definitive diagnosis can be difficult to achieve and multimodality imaging including Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Angiography (PET/CTA) has demonstrated improvement in the diagnostic yield. We present a case of a young patient with two previous thoracic surgeries who was admitted due to a severe Staphylococcus aureus IE affecting the mitral valve and presenting a questionable image in an aortic arch graft. This case illustrates the importance of the Endocarditis Team when it comes to difficult decisions regarding diagnosis and management in a disease with poor scientific evidence.

American Journal of Infectious Diseases
Volume 17 No. 3, 2021, 120-124

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajidsp.2021.120.124

Submitted On: 18 March 2021 Published On: 9 June 2021

How to Cite: Rello, P., González-Alujas, T., Escolà-Vergé, L., Roque, A., Sureda, C., Soriano-Colomé, T., Oristrell, G., Sambola, A. & Ferreira-González, I. (2021). A Case of a Young Patient with Acute Endocarditis and Challenging Diagnostic and Treatment Decisions. American Journal of Infectious Diseases, 17(3), 120-124. https://doi.org/10.3844/ajidsp.2021.120.124

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Keywords

  • Infective Endocarditis
  • Prosthetic Endocarditis
  • Cardiac 18F-FDG-PET/CTA