ABSTRACT

Despite decreased ineidence of rheumatic valvular disease, infective endocarditis remains a severe and deadly disorder. Currently, patients with prosthetic cardiac values, users of illicit parenteral drugs, hospitalization in wihich intravenous catheters and other non-rheumatic abnormalities, account for majority of cases of endocarditis. Rheumatic heart diseases is still the most frequent cause of infective endocarditis in devetoping countries as our result confirm. We retrospectively reviewed 13 cases diagnosed as having infective endocarditis and applied valve replacement operations in SSK Istanbul Training Hospital 2. Internal Medicine Clinic between 1998 and 2001. The major indication for surgical intervention in our series is cardiac heart failure secondary to valvular dysfunction. The other indications for surgery were multipl cerebral emboli, presence of large vegetations and resistance to medical therapy. Posteperative pathologic results were compared with elinical findings. Sensitivity of microbiologic criteria (blood cultures), TTE, TEE were 55%, 92%, 100% respectively. Specifity ofthem were 100%, 66%, 100% respectively. Duke criteria which emphasize typical echocardiographic findings and microbiologic results were found to be 83% sensitive, 100% specific for the definitive diagnosis of infective endocarditis.