Key Points
- To describe serial echocardiographic alterations and clinical outcomes in patients undergoing antibiotic treatment for bacterial endocarditis.
- Evaluated clinical progression and serial echocardiograms in two patients (N=2) with bacterial endocarditis several weeks after initial infection.
- Assessed mitral leaflet thickness, leaflet excursion, and vegetation echoes before and after completion of antibiotic therapy.
- Initial echocardiography demonstrated mitral leaflet thickening with normal excursion and abnormal shaggy echoes representing vegetations, which fully resolved following antibiotic therapy in both patients.
- One patient developed immune complex disease with vasculitis, hypocomplementemia, and renal failure that unexpectedly persisted for weeks after vegetations disappeared from the echocardiogram.
Structured PICO
PPopulation2 patients with bacterial endocarditis and apparent vegetations
IInterventionAntibiotic therapy
OOutcomeEchocardiographic findings (presence of abnormal echoes/vegetations)surrogate
Echocardiographic vegetations in bacterial endocarditis may resolve with antibiotic therapy, though immune-mediated complications can persist.
Limitations
- Specificity of echocardiographic findings to bacterial endocarditis must be determined by further studies