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Role of Transesophageal Echocardiography in Detecting Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Lead Infection
Author(s) -
Wasson Sanjeev,
Aggarwal Kul,
Flaker Greg,
Reddy Hanumanth K.
Publication year - 2003
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.1540-8175.2003.03028.x
Subject(s) - medicine , implantable cardioverter defibrillator , bacteremia , incidence (geometry) , lead (geology) , intensive care medicine , dysplasia , cardiology , antibiotics , physics , optics , geomorphology , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , geology
Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) lead infection is a rare condition with reported incidence of 0.2% to 16%. It usually presents with persistent bacteremia or fever of unknown origin and requires high clinical suspicion for diagnosis. Whenever ICD lead infection is suspected, transesophageal echocardiography is the diagnostic technique of choice for detection and characterization of the lesions. Lead infections are extremely difficult to manage conservatively and surgical removal of the entire defibrillator system is recommended along with antimicrobial therapy. We describe a case of recurrent staphylococci bacteremia due to an ICD lead infection in a patient with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. (ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY, Volume 20, April 2003)