Malignant Ulcerative Gonococcic Endocarditis

Boyd1in 1931 stated that "a rare form of acute bacterial endocarditis is that produced by the gonococcus." Though at first it would appear that this form of endocarditis is not so rare, judging by the number of cases reported in recent years, when one contrasts the incidence of gonococcic endocarditis to the prevalence of gonococcic infection in the male and female, it may truly be said that cardiac involvement by the gonococcus is a rare occurrence. Hoffman and Taggert,2in reviewing the literature since 1922, report that they could find only eight authentic cases of endocarditis caused by the gonococcus and add their own case. Since we can prove the source of the infection in our cases together with the finding of gonococci in smears from the vegetations taken from the aortic valve, plus a strongly positive gonococcus complement fixation test in one of the cases, we