Objective To study characteristics of antibacterial therapy (ABT) at different stages of treatment of patients with infective endocarditis (IE) in clinical practice. Materials and methods In retrospective (2001 to 2008) and prospective (2008 to 2014) studies lasting 14-years, 302 hospitalized patients with confirmed native valve IE were given antibiotic therapy at outpatient and inpatient stages of treatment. The choice of antibacterial drugs, duration and side effects of prolonged use of antibiotics (AB) were analyzed in comparison with the results of hospital treatment of patients with IE. Results It was shown that outpatients with IE due to fever without a specific diagnosis, were frequently prescribed short courses of antibiotics with the prevalence of ceftriaxone monotherapy and its combination with aminoglycosides as the starting treatment under hospital conditions. The cases of incompliance with the recommended duration of antimicrobial therapy were documented. The most common side effects of AB included diarrheal disorders, but the most serious problem was nephrotoxicity resulting in total or partial withdrawal of ABT. Conclusions The potential of antibiotic treatment of IE is employed but incompletely, the main obstacles to the implementation of adequate antibiotic therapy of IE being the low rate of early diagnosis of the disease including etiological one and the unacceptable level of long-term safety of ABT for the patients.

Antibacterial therapy at different stages of treatment of infectious endocarditis. do we act correctly

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a heart disease of an infectious nature with a primary lesion of the endocardium, heart valves, ligaments, followed by dissemination of the process to various organs. Infective endocarditis still remains a disease that is difficult to diagnose and unpredictable in terms of outcomes; it is registered in all countries of the world. Despite all the advances in medicine, infective endocarditis remains an extremely dangerous disease, with a mortality rate of 10–30%. The most common causes of lethal outcome of IE are multiple complications: embolisms of various localization, including cerebral arteries, aneurysms, toxic lesions of the spleen, myocarditis and pericarditis, acute renal failure. Currently, in pediatric cardiology practice, the frequency of primary infective endocarditis, which occurs with a change in the clinical picture, its atypical variants, has increased. The awareness of doctors of all specialties about this problem, the correct and timely diagnosis of the disease allows prescribing adequate therapy earlier and thereby improves the prognosis. The aim of our work was to familiarize physicians with the clinical observation of a teenager with an atypical onset of primary infective endocarditis, occurring under the “mask” of acute cerebrovascular accident. Also, the peculiarity of this case was the primary diagnosis of hereditary thrombophilia in the patient and the possible debut of a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system during the examination, which certainly complicated the diagnostic search and affected the outcome of infective endocarditis. The significance of dental procedures preceding the disease in a child, unfortunately, was not properly appreciated by the parents, but it is the inflammatory process in the oral cavity that should be considered as a key etiological factor in the development of infective endocarditis in this case.

Clinical case of complicated course of infectious endocarditis in a teenager

Key positions of Guidelines on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infective endocarditis issued by the Task Force of ESC in 2009 are explained in the comments. Recent opinions on these items are presented.

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Array A. Demin

Papers

The infective endocarditis (prevention, diagnosis criteria and treatment): key points 2010