title: Subacute endocarditis caused by Yersinia enterocolitica: a case report.
abstract: Yersinia enterocolitica is an unusual cause of septicaemia, usually occurring in immunocompromised hosts. Endocardial involvement is rare and generally presents as acute endocarditis. We describe the case of a 73-y-old woman, apparently without risk factors for endocarditis, admitted to hospital for persistent fever of unknown origin, arthralgia, and weight loss. Y. enterocolitica was isolated from blood and urine cultures, and echocardiography showed a pedunculated vegetation attached to the non-coronary cusp of the aortic valve. Symptoms and fever resolved after 3 days of intravenous cefotaxime plus amikacin, which were continued for the 2 weeks of her hospital stay; this treatment was followed by intravenous ceftriaxone after discharge. We hypothesized that a chemotherapy course administered 2 months previously for breast cancer might have been a predisposing factor for the Y. enterocolitica valvular infection and that immune system recovery contributed to mitigate the clinical presentation as subacute endocarditis.
authors.affiliation: Cardiology II, University Hospital Maggiore della Carità, Novara, Italy. lupialessandro1@tin.it
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lupi
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Poletti
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mondino
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Canale
authors.forename: Lodolo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Leonardo
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rognoni
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sante Bongo
authors.forename: Philippe Primo
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Caimmi
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nardi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019560:Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015009:Yersinia Infections / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000382:microbiology*; D015008:Yersinia enterocolitica / Q000302:isolation & purification*