• Nicholas R Butler, Patrick A Courtney, and John Swegle.
• Department of Family Medicine, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Electronic address: Nicholas-r-butler@uiowa.edu.
• Prim. Care. 2024 Mar 1; 51 (1): 155169155-169.

AbstractInfectious endocarditis (IE) is a universally fatal condition if left unmanaged, requiring urgent evaluation and treatment. Fever, new heart murmur, vegetations found by echocardiogram, and bacteremia are the most common symptoms and findings. Blood cultures and echocardiography are obligatory diagnostic modalities and should be used with the modified Duke criteria, the accepted diagnostic aid, when establishing a diagnosis of IE. When IE is suspected, consultations with cardiology, infectious disease, and cardiothoracic surgery teams should be made early. Staphylococci, Streptococci, and Enterococci are common pathogens, necessitating bactericidal antimicrobial therapy. Importantly, up to 50% of patients with IE will require cardiothoracic surgical intervention.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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