Diagnosis of infective endocarditis: is it always easy?
Causative microorganism is not always isolated from blood and infected tissues although some major and minor criteria have been proposed for diagnosis of infective endocarditis (IE). Prophylactic antibiotic regimens are generally used for these culture-negative IE. Further diagnostic tools such as PCR, however, can demonstrate the organism and decrease the ratio of culture-negative IE.
Cay
Serkan
S
Department of Cardiology, Yuksek Ihtisas Heart-Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. Electronic address: cayserkan@yahoo.com.
D004696:Endocarditis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D016459:Prosthesis-Related Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics