Endocarditis is characterized by vegetations, which is a mass of platelets, fibrin, micro-colonies of micro-organisms, and inflammatory cells, in the endocardium. Over the past three decades, the incidence of right-sided endocarditis has risen dramatically in Pakistan. We report a 36-year woman with a history of repeated intravenous analgesic injections for low back pain, presenting with high gra...

In order to assess the reliability of the echocardiogram in detecting valvular vegetations in patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP), echocardiograms from 85 consecutive patients with mitral valve prolapse were reviewed. Eleven patients had thick shaggy echoes confined to the anterior mitral leaflet; eighteen patients had shaggy echoes on the posterior leaflet; and five had abnormal echoes o...

The rabbit model of endocarditis was used to test the effectiveness of vancomycin and two different lysostaphin dosing regimens for the treatment of infections caused by a Staphylococcus aureus strain with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin (glycopeptide-intermediate susceptible S. aureus [GISA]). Vancomycin was ineffective, with no evidence of sterilization of aortic valve vegetations. Howev...

This technical document is a preliminary report on the study of the foliage influence on the radio wave propagation in cellular scenarios. The purpose is to evaluate the dispersion and attenuation caused by vegetations in mobile radio channels, hence we employed a channel sounder to measure received signals behind dense vegetations in the rural areas in Kanagawa, Japan. The transmitter sends a ...

Libman-Sacks endocarditis, characterized by sterile fibrofibrinous vegetations that have the potential to develop anywhere on the endocardial surface, was originally reported in 1924. The mitral valve is most commonly affected, followed by the aortic valve, whereas tricuspid and pulmonary valves are seldom involved. Libman-Sacks vegetations can be found in approximately 1 of 10 patients with sy...

With a novel real-time multiplex polymerase chain reaction test, the LightCycler SeptiFast® test, 25 bacterial and fungal species can be identified directly in blood. The SeptiFast® test has been used for rapid etiologic diagnosis in infectious endocarditis using blood samples but has not been evaluated directly on cardiac vegetations in patients being treated for infectious endocarditis. We pr...

Libman-Sacks endocarditis (LSE), characterized by verrucous vegetations formation, is a typical cardiac manifestation of autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). It primarily leads to lesions of cardiac valves and mostly involved valves are mitral and aortic, but isolated tricuspid valve involvement is exceptional. Here we reported a 20...

O f patients with left-sided endocarditis 20 47% have septic embolization to the spleen with varying degrees of clinical presentation. The natural history varies based on the size and location of the infarct. Larger and more peripheral infarctions are more prone to form abscesses and cause splenic rupture, whereas smaller infarcts may go largely unnoticed and only be detected on incidental imag...

Infective endocarditis is an endovascular microbial infection of cardiovascular structures, including large intrathoracic vessels and intracardiac foreign bodies. The characteristic lesions consist of vegetations composed of platelets, fibrin, microorganisms, and inflammatory cells, as well as leaflet disruption. The commonly accepted pathogenetic theory is herein reported, from endothelial inj...