Infective Endocarditis Not Easily Diagnosed in Primary Care

Paek, Song yi; Lee, Doo Young; Oh, Mi Kyeong; Cheong, Sang Sig

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite the use of antibiotics and cardiac surgery, infective endocarditis, remains a life-threatening disease. Unfortunately, diagnosis and treatment may be delayed. This is due, in part, to the vague and, at times, baffling clinical picture of this disease and to the frequency with which antibiotics were administered prior to obtaining a microbiological diagnosis. We conducted this study to improve the suspicion index from difficult diagnostic process of this serious disease.
METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 39 patients admitted to the Gangneung Asan Hospital in Gangwon-do with infective endocarditis from December 1996 to July 2004. We evaluated initial chief complaints and presumed diagnosis on first visit to medical care facilities, duration of referral from primary care to our hospital, the time period to confirm the diagnosis, treatment modality, and survival rate.
RESULTS
Among the total, 23 out of 39 patients fulfilled the criteria for definite infective endocarditis, whereas the others (16 patients) were for possible group in Duke criteria. In 79.5%, infective endocarditis was the first clinical presentation without medical history of any cardiac disease. Most frequent initial presenting symptoms and signs were fever and chills (56.4%), abnormal neurologic deficit (12.8%), and myalgia (7.6%). The most common initial diagnosis at first medical facilities was common cold. The mean duration of referral from primary care to our hospital was 9.5 days. The mean duration of symptoms before the definite diagnosis was 20.3 days. The most frequent etiologic microorganisms were streptococcus and staphylococcus. Blood culture negative infective endocarditis was found in 35.9% of cases. Almost all patients were treated with 3rd generation cephalosporins. Among the total, 71.6% patients were treated with medical treatment only, and 28.2% patients required surgical intervention. The mortality rate was 20.5% with the major cause of death being sepsis.
CONCLUSION
Since the symptoms and signs of infective endocarditis are nonspecific, it is difficult to suspect and reach to correct diagnosis of infective endocarditis in primary care, requiring prolonged duration of 3 weeks to reach diagnosis. The consequences can result in higher rate of systemic complications and mortality.