Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0014118 (endocarditis)
 15,629 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The clinical and pathologic findings in three patients with bacterial infection at the sites of prosthetic aortic valves are described. Each presented typical clinical features of acute bacterial endocarditis followed by the sudden development of severe and ultimately fatal aortic regurgitation. Pathologically the infectious process was characterized by extensive necrosis of the aortic annulus, disruption of the aortic wall, and the formation of abscesses in the periaortic tissues. In two patients the prosthetic valve was partially detached from the annulus, whereas in the other it was totally dislodged and impacted in the aortic arch shortly before death. In all, secondary operative intervention would have been fruitless because of the extent of the infection and the character of the tissue at the aortic root. In one patient fatal staphylococcal endocarditis followed dental extractions despite penicillin prophylaxis. A more comprehensive antibiotic regimen for patients with prosthetic cardiac valves is suggested.
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PMID:Bacterial endocarditis following aortic valve replacement. Clinical and pathologic correlations. 2582 93

While antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) is often used as a diagnostic marker for certain vasculitides, ANCA induction in the setting of infection is much less common. In the case of infective endocarditis, patients may present with multisystem disturbances resembling an autoimmune process, cases that may be rendered even trickier to diagnose in the face of a positive ANCA. Though not always straightforward, distinguishing an infective from an inflammatory process is pivotal in order to guide appropriate therapy. We describe an encounter with a 43-year-old male with chronically untreated hepatitis C virus infection who featured ANCA positivity while hospitalized with acute bacterial endocarditis. His case serves as a reminder of two of the few infections known to uncommonly generate ANCA positivity. We also summarize previously reported cases of ANCA positivity in the context of endocarditis and hepatitis C infections.
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PMID:Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody Induction due to Infection: A Patient with Infective Endocarditis and Chronic Hepatitis C. 2736 66

This case illustrates a rare, underdiagnosed disease, with a high mortality rate that is frequently misdiagnosed as acute bacterial endocarditis. Clinicians should include non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) as a differential diagnosis in patients with culture-negative endocarditis, so that its underlying etiology can be further investigated.
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PMID:Non-Bacterial Thrombotic Endocarditis: A Case of Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer Masquerading as Infective Endocarditis. 3278 48

Acute bacterial endocarditis is a rapid, difficult to manage, and frequently lethal disease. Potent antibiotics often cannot efficiently kill Staphylococcus aureus that colonizes the heart's valves. S. aureus relies on virulence factors to evade therapeutics and the host's immune response, usurping the host's clotting system by activating circulating prothrombin with staphylocoagulase and von Willebrand factor-binding protein. An insoluble fibrin barrier then forms around the bacterial colony, shielding the pathogen from immune cell clearance. Targeting virulence factors may provide previously unidentified avenues to better diagnose and treat endocarditis. To tap into this unused therapeutic opportunity, we codeveloped therapeutics and multimodal molecular imaging to probe the host-pathogen interface. We introduced and validated a family of small-molecule optical and positron emission tomography (PET) reporters targeting active thrombin in the fibrin-rich environment of bacterial colonies. The imaging agents, based on the clinical thrombin inhibitor dabigatran, are bound to heart valve vegetations in mice. Using optical imaging, we monitored therapy with antibodies neutralizing staphylocoagulase and von Willebrand factor-binding protein in mice with S. aureus endocarditis. This treatment deactivated bacterial defenses against innate immune cells, decreased in vivo imaging signal, and improved survival. Aortic or tricuspid S. aureus endocarditis in piglets was also successfully imaged with clinical PET/magnetic resonance imaging. Our data map a route toward adjuvant immunotherapy for endocarditis and provide efficient tools to monitor this drug class for infectious diseases.
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PMID:Multimodal imaging of bacterial-host interface in mice and piglets with Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis. 3314 23


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