Infective Endocarditis in the Antibiotic Era

Underlying Heart DiseaseThe incidence of various types of heart disease observed in the 100 patients studied at the New England Medical Center Hospitals is presented in Table 5. In 39 per cent no antecedent cardiac disorder could be discovered during life or on examination at autopsy.The inability to establish accurately the specific nature of the type of cardiac lesion underlying an episode of BE on clinical grounds alone is illustrated by 1 of our cases in which death finally permitted pathological definition of an unusual syndrome.J.D. (N.E.M.C.H. 152–602), a 77-year-old white woman, had had headache, anorexia, malaise, severe . . .