Early surgical intervention in culture-negative endocarditis of the aortic valve complicated by abscess in an infant:A case report

BACKGROUND Surgical therapy of infective endocarditis(IE)involving aortic valves and mitral valves is widespread.However,there are few reports concerning patients with culture-negative endocarditis complicated by the appearance of comorbid valvular perforation and abscess.Therefore,real-time surveillance of changes in cardiac structure and function is critical for timely surgical management,especially in patients who do not respond to medical therapy.CASE SUMMARY Here,we report an atypical case in a 9-mo-old infant without congenital heart disease but with symptoms of intermittent fever and macular rashes.Physical examination,laboratory tests,and electrocardiograms suggested a diagnosis of IE,although the result of blood cultures was exactly negative.After treatment with antibiotic drugs,the patient got a transient recovery.On the 9th day,we proceeded with continuous echocardiogram due to fever again and the results revealed aortic valve abscess with perforation,regurgitation,vegetation,and pericardial effusion.Intraoperative monitoring revealed aortic valve perforation,presence of apothegmatic cystic spaces below the left coronary cusp of the aortic valve,and severe aortic valve regurgitation.Aortic valve repair was performed by autologous pericardial patch plasty.The patient was discharged after 4 wk of treatment and no complications occurred after surgery.CONCLUSION Our case demonstrated the necessity of serial echocardiography monitoring for possible adverse symptoms of IE in pediatric patients.

Culture Negative Disseminated Septic Polyarthritis Complicating Rat-Bite Fever in an Immunocompetent Adult

Rat-bite is uncommon worldwide, excluding developing countries. The history of a bite is usually missed if not meticulously asked for in history, proper exposure and examination. Today we report a case of culture-negative rat-bite fever with poly septic arthritis resembling a rheumatoid arthritis-like picture in a 64-year-old gentleman. The presentation at first imitated an arthritis-like picture which was polyarthritis affecting the right ankle, right knee, right wrist, right proximal interphalangeal, left metacarpophalangeal and proximal interphalangeal joints.

Infective Endocarditis with Negative Cultures:A Defiant Diagnosis

The diagnosis and management of blood culture-negative endocarditis constitute a real clinical challenge and a systemic approach is necessary for a successful outcome. The authors report a case of a female patient aged 26, with previous clinical history of valve disease and heart failure NYHA class II, with decompensation of co-morbidities associated with fever, productive cough, nonselective anorexia and unquantified weight loss with one month of evolution with negative blood cultures. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed the presence of severe pulmonary hypertension and mitral valve vegetations in the context of positive serology for Q fever. Herein, the authors report a case of blood culture-negative endocarditis and present a brief review on the management of this medical condition. We highlighted the diagnostic difficulties of blood culture-negative endocarditis and subacute clinical presentation, which sometimes present with fever of unknown origin and complaints of deterioration of cardiac function, thus creating a challenging differential diagnosis.