This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Valve infection rate high in cardiac device infective endocarditis

Issue: May 2012

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

The risk for mortality and concomitant valve infection was high among a group of patients with cardiac device infective endocarditis. However, researchers for the International Collaboration on Endocarditis-Prospective Cohort Study suggest that improvements in survival may occur at 1 year with early removal of the device.

Data were pooled from the study to evaluate the clinical characteristics and outcome of cardiac device infective endocarditis among 3,284 patients between June 2000 and August 2006. Cardiac device infective endocarditis was diagnosed in 177 of 2,760 patients diagnosed with definite infective endocarditis. The median age of patients with cardiac device infective endocarditis was 71.2 years.

The cause of most cardiac device infective endocarditis was staphylococci: 62 were caused by Staphylococcus aureus and 56 by coagulase-negative staphylococci. Patients also had a high prevalence for health care-associated infection.

Sixty-six patients had coexisting valve involvement — predominantly tricuspid valve infection. The in-hospital mortality rate was 14.7% and 1-year mortality was 23.2%. There was a demonstrated survival benefit at 1 year for those who underwent device removal during the initial hospitalization.

“Cardiac device infective endocarditis, similar to native- and prosthetic-valve endocarditis, is significantly influenced by health care interventions in its development, microbiology and outcome,” the researchers wrote. “Given that the numbers of cardiovascular implantable electronic devices placed are increasing rapidly, further studies on the prevention and treatment of this serious complication are needed.”

References:

• Athan E. JAMA. 2012;307:1727-1735.

Disclosures:

• The researchers report financial relationships with Abbott, Astellas, Biosynexus, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cubist, Edwards Life Sciences, Galderma, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Inhibitex, Janssen-Cilag, Johnson & Johnson, MedImmune, Merck, MSD, NovaDigm, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Schering-Plough, Targanta, The Medicines Company, Theravance and ViiV.