Analysis shows limited utility of follow-up blood cultures in detecting recurrences of infective endocarditis after antimicrobial treatment.
Among 598 infective endocarditis (IE) episodes, follow-up blood cultures within 14 days of antimicrobial treatment completion were performed in 135 (23%) cases and detected only 2 (1.5%) recurrences. This strategy failed to identify 8 (6%) additional IE recurrences diagnosed between days 15 and 120, underscoring its limited utility.
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Regina et al. (2025) studied this question.
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