Key result
A characteristic echocardiographic sign, the 'marantic kiss', was observed in 5 patients with non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis and active cancer.
Case Report (n=5)
No
The 'marantic kiss' is a newly described, potentially pathognomonic echocardiographic sign for non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis of the aortic valve in patients with active cancer.
Marantic endocarditis or non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) describes sterile platelet–fibrin vegetations on normal cardiac valves in patients with malignant disease. ... We are presenting five recent cases of NBTE from our tertiary care center. They show a strikingly mirroring picture of the short axis of the aortic valve, with small ‘kissing’ vegetations attached to the ventricular side of the tips of all three cusps, causing a coaptation defect in the three commissures resulting in a characteristic star-like regurgitant jet. All five patients had active cancer (Panel A: rectum carcinoma, Panel B: non-small cell lung carcinoma, Panel C: colon carcinoma with hepatic metastases, Panel D: endometrial cancer, Panels E and F: pancreatic cancer with hepatic metastasis). Three of the patients presented with acute cardioembolic stroke; none had clinical or laboratory signs of active infection on presentation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of this characteristic ‘marantic kiss’ which seems pathognomonic for NBTE of the aortic valve.
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Schneider et al. (2022) conducted a case report in Non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) (n=5). Echocardiography was evaluated. A characteristic echocardiographic sign, the 'marantic kiss', was observed in 5 patients with non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis and active cancer.
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