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Left‐Sided Endocarditis in Intravenous Drug Users: A Case Report and Review of the Literature
Author(s) -
Seghatol Frank,
Grinberg Isaac
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1046/j.1540-8175.2002.00509.x
Subject(s) - endocarditis , medicine , intravenous drug , infective endocarditis , tricuspid valve , vegetation (pathology) , aortic valve , abscess , mitral valve , cardiology , surgery , fistula , pathology , virology , virus , viral disease
We report a case of staphylococcus endocarditis of the mitral and aortic valves in an intravenous drug user (IVDU) complicated by abscess of the aortic root and aorto‐left atrial fistula. Interestingly, the tricuspid valve was free of vegetation. Infective endocarditis in IVDUs more commonly involves right‐sided valves; left‐sided endocarditis is rare, indicates severe disease, or is a postmortem finding. This case illustrates the need for considering left‐sided valve endocarditis in IVDU with septicemia, even if the tricuspid valve shows no evidence of vegetation.