Endocarditis diagnostic criteria
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Overview
In general, a patient should fulfill the Duke Criteria[1] in order to establish the diagnosis of endocarditis.
As the Duke Criteria relies heavily on the results of echocardiography, research has addressed when to order an echocardiogram by using signs and symptoms to predict occult endocarditis among patients with intravenous drug abuse[2][3][4] and among non drug abusing patients [5][6]. Unfortunately, this research is over 20 years old and it is possible that changes in the epidemiology of endocarditis and bacteria such as staphylococcus make the following estimates incorrectly low.
Among patients who do not use illicit drugs and have a fever in the emergency room, there is a less than 5% chance of occult endocarditis. Mellors [6] in 1987 found no cases of endocarditis nor of staphylococcal bacteremia among 135 febrile patients in the emergency room. The upper confidence interval for 0% of 135 is 5%, so for statistical reasons alone, there is up to a 5% chance of endocarditis among these patients. In contrast, Leibovici [5] found that among 113 non-selected adults admitted to the hospital because of fever there were two cases (1.8% with 95%CI: 0% to 7%) of endocarditis.
Among patients who do use illicit drugs and have a fever in the emergency room, there is about a 10% to 15% prevalence of endocarditis. This estimate is not substantially changed by whether the doctor believes the patient has a trivial explanation for their fever[4]. Weisse[2] found that 13% of 121 patients had endocarditis. Marantz [4] also found a prevalence of endocarditis of 13% among such patients in the emergency room with fever. Samet [3] found a 6% incidence among 283 such patients, but after excluding patients with initially apparent major illness to explain the fever (including 11 cases of manifest endocarditis), there was a 7% prevalence of endocarditis.
Among patients with staphylococcal bacteremia (SAB), one study found a 29% prevalence of endocarditis in community-acquired SAB versus 5% in nosocomial SAB[7]. However, only 2% of strains were resistant to methicillin and so these numbers may be low in areas of higher resistance.
References
- ↑ Durack D, Lukes A, Bright D (1994). "New criteria for diagnosis of infective endocarditis: utilization of specific echocardiographic findings. Duke Endocarditis Service". Am J Med. 96 (3): 200–9. PMID 8154507.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Weisse A, Heller D, Schimenti R, Montgomery R, Kapila R (1993). "The febrile parenteral drug user: a prospective study in 121 patients". Am J Med. 94 (3): 274–80. PMID 8452151.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Samet J, Shevitz A, Fowle J, Singer D (1990). "Hospitalization decision in febrile intravenous drug users". Am J Med. 89 (1): 53–7. PMID 2368794.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Marantz P, Linzer M, Feiner C, Feinstein S, Kozin A, Friedland G (1987). "Inability to predict diagnosis in febrile intravenous drug abusers". Ann Intern Med. 106 (6): 823–8. PMID 3579068.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Leibovici L, Cohen O, Wysenbeek A (1990). "Occult bacterial infection in adults with unexplained fever. Validation of a diagnostic index". Arch Intern Med. 150 (6): 1270–2. PMID 2353860.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mellors J, Horwitz R, Harvey M, Horwitz S (1987). "A simple index to identify occult bacterial infection in adults with acute unexplained fever". Arch Intern Med. 147 (4): 666–71. PMID 3827454.
- ↑ Kaech C, Elzi L, Sendi P, Frei R, Laifer G, Bassetti S, Fluckiger U (2006). "Course and outcome of Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia: a retrospective analysis of 308 episodes in a Swiss tertiary-care centre". Clin Microbiol Infect. 12 (4): 345–52. doi:10.1111/j.1469-0691.2005.01359.x. PMID 16524411.