title: Historical aspects of infective endocarditis.
abstract: Infective endocarditis was a fatal disease three generations ago. Temporal evolution of knowledge made possible important advances in diagnostic techniques, especially in echocardiography, the possibility of cardiac surgery during the active infectious process and new guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis before interventional procedures. Nowadays, infective endocarditis is curable. In this review, we describe historical aspects of endocarditis, from Osler's observations in the 19th century to the change from a "clinically possible" to a "clinically defined" disease.
authors.affiliation: Instituto do Coração (InCor) do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. grinberg@incor.usp.br
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grinberg
authors.forename: Maria Cecilia
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Solimene
mesh_terms: D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000266:history*; D004850:Eponyms; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans