title: Bartonella quintana endocarditis as a cause of severe aortic insufficiency and heart failure.
abstract: We describe the case of a 26-year-old man who developed severe aortic valve insufficiency due to a culturenegative endocarditis, leading to severe heart failure. The diagnosis of Bartonella quintana endocarditis was suspected from the clinical presentation and serological immunofluorescence assay, and was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction analysis of excised valve tissue after aortic valve replacement. The aim of this report is to illustrate B. quintana endocarditis as an important cause of culture-negative endocarditis that presents challenges in its clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Therapeutics, Alexandra Hospital, University of Athens, Greece. a-icu@med.uoa.gr
authors.forename: Stavros
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dimopoulos
authors.forename: Evagelos
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eleftherakis
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Charitos
authors.forename: Timotheos
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakellaridis
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sinapidis
authors.forename: Evagelos
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kostis
authors.forename: Savvas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Toumanidis
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Efstathiou
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000382:microbiology*; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000150:complications* / Q000382:microbiology*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014205:Trench Fever