Family Casebook

Jun 22 2008 Dr Gareth Smith

Endocarditis

ENDOCARDITIS is an infection of the inside lining of the heart or heart valves.

It is more commonly found in those people who have damage to the heart or artificial heart valves.

If you have a healthy heart, your risk of getting it is very low but if there is damage that causes a problem to the blood flow around the inside of the heart then your risk is increased. The infection is caused by bacteria growing on the inside layer of the heart muscle.

The symptoms are vague at first and can feel like flu, with low-grade fever, tiredness, aching joints, sweats, coughing and shortness of breath. It is treated with high-dose intravenous antibiotics and in severe cases it can be fatal.