Endocarditis

Endocarditis is an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart, the endocardium. It usually involves the heart valves (native or prosthetic valves). Other structures that may be involved include the interventricular septum, the chordae tendineae, the mural endocardium, or even on intracardiac devices. Endocarditis is characterized by a prototypic lesion, the vegetation, which is a mass of platelets, fibrin, microcolonies of microorganisms, and scant inflammatory cells. In the subacute form of infective endocarditis, the vegetation may also include a center of granulomatous tissue, which may fibrose or calcify.

There are multiple ways to classify endocarditis. The simplest classification is based on etiology: either infective or non-infective, depending on whether a microorganism is the source of the inflammation or not. Regardless, the diagnosis of endocarditis is based on clinical features, investigations such as an echocardiogram, and blood cultures demonstrating the presence of endocarditis-causing microorganisms.

Read more about Endocarditis:  Infective Endocarditis, Non-infective Endocarditis

Other articles related to "endocarditis":

Lupus - Signs and Symptoms - Cardiac
... of the heart, such as pericarditis, myocarditis, and endocarditis ... The endocarditis of SLE is characteristically noninfective (Libman-Sacks endocarditis), and involves either the mitral valve or the tricuspid valve ...
Splinter Hemorrhage
... condition, and can be associated with subacute bacterial endocarditis, scleroderma, trichinosis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic ... In certain conditions (in particular, infective endocarditis), clots can migrate from the affected heart valve and find their way into various parts of the body ... Even if a patient does have infective endocarditis, perhaps 5 in every 6 patients will not have splinter hemorrhages ...
Subacute Bacterial Endocarditis - Prognosis
... is usually present in patients before developing subacute endocarditis ... It is less likely to lead to septic emboli than is acute endocarditis, but subacute endocarditis has a relatively slow process of infection and, if left untreated, can worsen for ...
Subacute Bacterial Endocarditis
... Subacute bacterial endocarditis (also called endocarditis lenta) is a type of endocarditis (more specifically, infective endocarditis) ...
Non-infective Endocarditis
... Nonbacterial thrombic endocarditis (NBTE) or marantic endocarditis is most commonly found on previously undamaged valves ... As opposed to infective endocarditis, the vegetations in NBTE are small, sterile, and tend to aggregate along the edges of the valve or the cusps ... Also unlike infective endocarditis, NBTE does not cause an inflammation response from the body ...