This case series describes the necropsy findings of endocarditis in six horses, highlighting frequent mitral valve involvement and associated renal and myocardial infarcts.
Supports mitral predominance with embolic infarcts in equine endocarditis; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
Six horses (five males) aged three months to fourteen years had endocarditis at necropsy. Two of the horses had a clinical diagnosis of valvular endocarditis with negative blood cultures. Single or complex valvular involvement was present in five horses. One horse had non-infectious thrombi associated only with the chordae tendineae. Mitral valves were affected in four horses, and aortic semilunar valves were affected in two. Infarcts had occurred in the kidneys and the myocardium of four horses. Bacteria were isolated postmortem from the valvular vegetations of two horses; Candida parapsilosis was isolated and demonstrated morphologically in a third horse.
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Buergelt et al. (1985) studied this question.
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