高橋 秀一¹, 伊賀 幹二², 泉 知里², 小西 孝²

Shuichi TAKAHASHI¹, Kanji IGA², Chisato IZUMI², Takashi KONISHI²

¹天理よろづ相談所病院臨床病理部, ²天理よろづ相談所病院循環器内科

¹Department of Clinical Pathology, Tenri Hospital, ²Department of Cardiology, Tenri Hospital

キーワード : clinical information, endocardiography, infective endocarditis, vegetation

Detection of vegetation is important in diagnosing infective endocarditis. We analyzed clinical information from 58 patients with vegetation-like echo transthoracic echocardiography who had been referred to this institution for echo examination during the past 5 years. Patients with healed vegetation were excluded. Vegetation-like echo was defined as a mass, a thread-like echo attached to the valve or endocardium, or both. Diagnosis of vegetation-like echo requires the concurrence of two cardiologists and one sonographer. Forty-four patients were treated with antibiotics because their clinical courses were consistent withactive infective endocarditis: blood cultures were positive in 27 patients and negative in 17 patients. Follow-up data were available for 10 of the 14 patients who had no findings suggestive of active infective endocarditis: size of the vegetation-like echo remained unchanged over the mean interval of 12.1 months, and no clinical signs or symptoms of active infective endocarditis appeared. About one fourth　of the patients withvegetation-like echo were not associated withinfective endocarditis. Clinical information, in addition to the detection of vegetation-like echo, thus appears to be indispensable in diagnosing infective endocarditis.