National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Case Report
The importance of exposures in Culture-negative endocarditis in an IV drugs abuser
Author(s): Ensiyeh Rahimi*, Sara Gaderkhani, Arash Seifi, Mahsa Azadbakhsh Kanafgorabi, Bahar Haghdoost, Amirhossein Eghbal, Saharnaz Sazgarnejad and Saber Esmaeili
Background: Infective Endocarditis (IE) is a severe and life-threatening disease worldwide. Approximately 5% of IE cases have negative blood cultures. Risk factors are exposure to slow-growing bacteria and exposure to Bartonella species. Most patients have nonspecific symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and weight loss.
Case presentation: A 38 years old male with a history of addiction was referred to our center with severe dyspnea, high fever, chest pain, and shortness of breath. He went under CT angiography for pulmonary thromboembolism and TTE. According to the findings, the first diagnosis was right-side endocarditis, which led to septic embolism, so we started empiric antibiotic therapy with vancomycin plus ceftriaxone. After two weeks of constant fever despite broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy and pleural effusion drainage, we changed the an.. View More»