Division CVS-ENDO: Endocarditis

Endocarditis of a natural or prosthetic heart valve must meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Patient has organisms cultured from valve or vegetation

• Patient has two or more of the following signs or symptoms with no other recognized cause: fever (> 38 °C), new or changing murmur, embolic phenomena, skin manifestations (for example, petechiae, splinter hemorrhages, painful subcutaneous nodules), congestive heart failure, or cardiac conduction abnormality

  AND at least one of the following:

  • organisms cultured from two or more blood cultures

  • organisms seen on Gram's stain of valve when culture is negative or not done

  • valvular vegetation seen during a surgical operation or autopsy

  • positive antigen test on blood or urine (for example, Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, or Group B Streptococcus)

  • evidence of new vegetation seen on echocardiogram

  AND if diagnosis is made antemortem, physician institutes appropriate antimicrobial therapy