Tag Archives: polymerase chain reaction

Introduction Figure 1. A large vegetation on the aortic valve from a patient with infective endocarditis Untreated infective endocarditis (IE) is fatal; even with appropriate treatment, IE is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality worldwide.1 The annual incidence of IE over the past two decades has remained relatively constant, ranging between 1.7 and 6.2 cases/100,000 population. Neither advances in healthcare nor revisions made to the current diagnostic criteria have substantially altered this.1-3 The current definition for IE now incorporates infections of prosthetic heart valves (both bioprosthetic and mechanical), implante