• Ilya Polishchuk, Vered Stavi, Jenan Awesat, Yael Ben Baruch Golan, Carmi Bartal, Iftach Sagy, Alan Jotkowitz, and Leonid Barski.
• Internal Medicine Outpatient Ward, Soroka Univerity Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
• Am. J. Med. Sci. 2021 Jan 1; 361 (1): 83-89.

BackgroundThe impact of sex on the presentation, etiology, and outcomes of infective endocarditis (IE) has not been adequately studied. The aim of the present research was to analyze the impact of sex on the presentation, etiology, and outcomes of IE.MethodsWe performed a retrospective study of 214 adult patients (131 male and 83 female) with IE. All cases of IE were reviewed by two investigators- both senior physicians in internal medicine. Two groups of patients were compared: male and female patients with IE. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality.ResultsWe found significant differences in etiologic factors of IE in male and female patients. Microbiologic etiology differences between male and female groups of patients were in coagulase negative staphylococcus (15.0% in male vs 3.8% in female groups, P = 0.011), and culture negative endocarditis (8.7% in male vs 23.8% in female groups, P = 0.004). We did not find a difference in the primary outcome between the two groups; however, all-cause mortality was significantly higher in the female group as compared to the male group (26 [31.3] vs 22 [16.8], P = 0.018).ConclusionsWe found that sex may have important role in both the microbial profile and the patient's outcome with IE.Copyright © 2020 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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