Age-related prevalence of cardiac valvular abnormalities warranting infectious endocarditis prophylaxis.
The goal of our study was to determine the prevalence of older patients with cardiac valvular abnormalities warranting endocarditis prophylaxis. We performed a retrospective analysis of 1,000 randomly selected echocardiograms (inpatients and outpatients) from our tertiary care institution. We found that the prevalence of valvular abnormalities increased significantly with age, and that 50% of patients > or =60 years of age warranted endocarditis prophylaxis using current guidelines. With the aging population of the United States and the negative consequences of widespread antibiotic prophylaxis, further investigation is needed to identify patients who are truly at risk for infectious endocarditis.
Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, New York 10029-6574, USA. lori.croft@mssm.edu
Lori B
LB
Croft
Robert
R
Donnino
Robert
R
Shapiro
Jodi
J
Indes
Alla
A
Fayngersh
Anthony
A
Squire
Martin E
ME
Goldman
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019072:Antibiotic Prophylaxis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents