Sign of the Times: Updating Infective Endocarditis Diagnostic Criteria to Recognize Enterococcus faecalis as a Typical Endocarditis Bacterium.
The modified Duke criteria requires that Enterococcus faecalis bacteremia must be both community-acquired and without known focus in order to be considered a microbiological "Major" diagnostic criterion in the diagnosis of infective endocarditis. We believe that the microbiological diagnostic criteria should be updated to regard E. faecalis as a "typical" endocarditis bacterium as is currently the case, for example, viridans group streptococci and Staphylococcus aureus. Using data from a prospective study of 344 patients with E. faecalis bacteremia evaluated with echocardiography, we demonstrate that designating E. faecalis as a "typical" endocarditis pathogen, regardless the place of acquisition or the portal of entry, improved the sensitivity to correctly identify definite endocarditis from 70% (modified Duke criteria) to 96% (enterococcal adjusted Duke criteria).
Duke Scholars
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Related Subject Headings
- Prospective Studies
- Microbiology
- Humans
- Enterococcus faecalis
- Endocarditis, Bacterial
- Endocarditis
- Bacteria
- Bacteremia
- 3202 Clinical sciences
- 11 Medical and Health Sciences
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Location
Related Subject Headings
- Prospective Studies
- Microbiology
- Humans
- Enterococcus faecalis
- Endocarditis, Bacterial
- Endocarditis
- Bacteria
- Bacteremia
- 3202 Clinical sciences
- 11 Medical and Health Sciences