MINI-SYMPOSIUM

Echocardiography in infective endocarditis

A Evangelista, M T Gonzalez-Alujas

Servicio de Cardiologia, Hospital Vall d’ Hebron, Barcelona, Spain

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr A Evangelista
Servicio de Cardiologia, Hospital Vall d’ Hebron, P° Vall d’ Hebron 119-129, 08035 Barcelona. Spain; evangel@hg.vhebron.es

Keywords: infective endocarditis; echocardiography; transoesophageal echocardiography; transthoracic echocardiography

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Since Dillon and colleagues¹ in 1973 described valvar vegetations by M mode echocardiography, the technique has assumed an increasingly important role in the assessment and management of endocarditis. The development of two dimensional and later transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) has significantly improved the non-invasive detection of vegetations. Moreover, echo-Doppler studies provide clinically important information on the presence and degree of valvar destruction and their haemodynamic consequences, as well as on the existence of perivalvar infection. The diagnostic strategy proposed by Durack and colleagues² (the Duke criteria) combined echocardiographic findings with clinical and microbiological data. Three echocardiographic findings were considered to be major criteria for the diagnosis of endocarditis: (1) presence of vegetations defined as mobile echodense masses implanted in a valve or mural endocardium in the trajectory of a regurgitant jet or implanted in prosthetic material with no alternative anatomical explanation; (2) presence of abscesses; or (3) presence of a new . . . [Full text of this article]

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