title: [Clinical analysis of 120 cases of infective endocarditis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To improve the diagnosis and treatment of infective endocarditis (IE) by exploring its causes, pathogenic microorganism and clinical characteristics.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical data of 120 IE patients treated in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from October 1997 to September 2007 were analyzed retrospectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 120 consecutive cases diagnosed as IE according to the Duke's new criteria, 79 were male and 41 female with a average age of (43.2 +/- 16.7) years old. Twelve cases were prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) and 108 cases native valve endocarditis (NVE) and there were no previously known heart diseases in 29 of the cases. Seventy-nine of the 108 (73.1%) NVE patients had basic cardiac abnormalities before IE diagnosis, such as congenital cardiovascular disease (30 cases), idiopathic mitral valve prolapse (23 cases) and rheumatic heart disease (11 cases). Fever (100.0%), anemia (54.2%) and embolism (48.3%) were the most common clinical manifestations in the IE development. Of the 83 patients who had a positive blood culture result, Streptococcus viridans (51.8%) was the most common isolated microorganism.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Congenital cardiovascular diseases and idiopathic mitral valve prolapse are the two most commonly heart diseases in IE. Blood culture and echocardiogram should always be done to exclude IE, especially presenting with fever of unknown reasons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Disease, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China.
authors.forename: Xiu-fen
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.forename: De-yan
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zheng-yin
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Huan-ling
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tai-sheng
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014463:Ultrasonography; D055815:Young Adult