[Transesophageal echocardiography in the diagnosis of infective endocarditis].

BACKGROUND The clinical implications of a negative multiplane transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) have not yet been reported. We aim to determine the negative predictive value (NPV) of a negative multiplane TEE in patients with suspected infective endocarditis (IE). METHODS AND RESULTS We identified 83 consecutive patients with suspected IE and negative multiplane TEE from our echocardiographic database. Of 74 patients with a minimum of 1-month follow-up, only 1 patient developed "definite IE". Eight patients had "possible IE". The calculated NPV of multiplane TEE in IE was 98.6% if we only considered the case of "definite IE". If we assumed that all patients with "possible IE" had the disease, then the NPV of multiplane TEE was 87.8%. CONCLUSIONS Multiplane TEE is a highly accurate diagnostic tool with excellent NPV in IE. However, in a highly suspicious clinical setting for IE, a repeat TEE is still recommended to assess evolving echocardiographic features.