Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

This report describes a case of Austrian syndrome (pneumonia, meningitis, and endocarditis, as a result of Streptococcus pneumoniae infection). A computerized medline search was performed for review of literature. In the review of literature, 54 cases including our case were found. Complete clinical and microbiological information was available only for 20 cases. Most invasive pneumococcal infections occurred in debilitated middle aged men with chronic alcoholism. Native aortic valve insufficiency was the commonest cause of cardiac failure among these patients, requiring valve replacement. Austrian syndrome is seen infrequently in this antibiotic era but is still associated with a poor outcome. Hence early recognition and appropriate medical or combined medical-surgical treatment needs to be considered promptly.
 ...
PMID:Austrian syndrome (pneumococcal pneumonia, meningitis, and endocarditis): a case report. 1921 20

The aim of this study was to describe and analyse hospital mortality patterns after the Liberian war. Data were collected retrospectively from January to July 2005 in a referral hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. The overall fatality rate was 17.2% (438/2543) of medical admissions. One-third of deaths occurred in the first 24h. The adult fatality rate was 23.3% (241/1034). Non-infectious diseases accounted for 56% of the adult deaths. The main causes of death were meningitis (16%), stroke (14%) and heart failure (10%). Associated fatality rates were 48%, 54% and 31% respectively. The paediatric fatality rate was 13.1% (197/1509). Infectious diseases caused 66% of paediatric deaths. In infants <1 month old, the fatality rate was 18% and main causes of death were neonatal sepsis (47%), respiratory distress (24%) and prematurity (18%). The main causes of death in infants > or =1 month old were respiratory infections (27%), malaria (23%) and severe malnutrition (16%). Associated fatality rates were 12%, 10% and 19%. Fatality rates were similar to those found in other sub-Saharan countries without a previous conflict. Early deaths could decrease through recognition and early referral of severe cases from health centres to the hospital and through assessment and priority treatment of these patients at arrival.
 ...
PMID:Adult and paediatric mortality patterns in a referral hospital in Liberia 1 year after the end of the war. 1924 3

Pseudomonas stutzeri which is an aerobic, non-fermentative gram-negative bacillus frequently found in soil, water and hospital environment, rarely leads to serious community-acquired infections. In this report a case of community-acquired meningitis due to P. stutzeri was presented. A 73-years-old male patient was admitted to the emergency department with the complaints of nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, difficulties in walking and speaking and loss of consciousness. There was no history of an underlying disease or immunosuppression. Physical examination revealed nuchal rigidity, however, Kernig and Brudzinski signs were negative. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis revealed 0.4 mg/dl glucose (simultaneous blood glucose 145 mg/dl), and 618 mg/dl protein and 640 leucocyte/mm3 (90% PMNL). No bacteria were detected in Gram stained and Ehrlich-Ziehl-Neelsen stained CSF smears. Upon the diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis, treatment with ceftriaxone and ampicillin was initiated, however, the patient died after 16 hours of hospitalization. CSF culture yielded the growth of gram-negative oxidase-positive bacteria and the isolate was identified as P. stutzeri by Vitek-2 Compact system (bioMerieux, France). The isolate was found to be sensitive to piperacillin/tazobactam, amikacin, gentamycin, ceftazidime, cefepime, ciprofloxacin, imipenem and meropenem. Since the patient was lost due to acute respiratory and cardiac failure, it was not possible to change the therapy to agent specific therapy. In conclusion, it should always be kept in mind that uncommon agents could lead to community-acquired meningitis in elderly patients and empirical treatment protocols might fail in such cases resulting in high morbidity and mortality.
 ...
PMID:[Community-acquired Pseudomonas stutzeri meningitis in an immunocompetent patient]. 1933 94

A 62-year-old man with a history of significant alcohol consumption presented with atypical neurological symptoms. Bacterial meningitis, caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, was diagnosed with a 24-hour delay. Despite antibiotic treatment, the patient developed heart failure and multiple organ failure. He also had endocarditis with insufficient mitral and aortic valves. Subsequently, we found signs of a pulmonary infection. Because of an unsustainable haemodynamic situation, double heart valve replacement was considered necessary, despite the extremely high surgical risk and the extracardial infection foci showed by leukocyte scintigraphy. The patient died shortly after surgery. The triad of meningitis, pneumonia and endocarditis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae is called the Austrian syndrome. This syndrome is rare and often has a serious course. It is strongly associated with asplenia, functional asplenia or hyposplenism, as occurs with alcohol abuse. Early recognition and a combination of antibiotic and surgical treatment is essential.
 ...
PMID:[Austrian syndrome: a patient with meningitis, pneumonia and endocarditis]. 2048 21

A 59-year-old man treated with pneumococcal meningitis 4 months ago was hospitalized for acute heart failure and performed aortic valve replacement by rupture of aortic valve. The frequent association of pneumococcal meningitis and endocarditis is known as Austrian syndrome. Though Austrian syndrome is a clinically rare disease, the evolution of pneumococcal endocarditis is very aggressive and associated with high mortality, and early recognition for evidence of endocardial lesion in patients with pneumococcal meningitis is important to reduce the complications and mortality rate.
 ...
PMID:Austrian syndrome with a delayed onset of heart failure. 2151 91

In this section, the authors present four interesting clinical cases that presented with common symptoms, but required careful clinical examination and investigations to arrive at a correct diagnosis and institute appropriate management. The first case is a 3-month-old infant who presented with hypertonia, bulging anterior fontanelle and tachycardia. ECG revealed supraventricular tachycardia which was managed appropriately. The clinical suspicion of meningitis was not borne out by the CSF findings. The second is a pre-school girl who presented with recurrent, episodic wheezing that did not respond to standard asthma therapy. The authors discuss the management approach in such cases; careful examination of radiographs and clinical course led to the correct diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy. The next two cases are older children; one of them presented with massive bilateral pleural effusion; this was found to be caused by congestive cardiac failure. The last case is a 10-year-old child presenting with features of right sided heart failure without obvious cardiac abnormality on clinical examination. Advanced investigations confirmed a rare diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia; retrospective ECG examination showed the characteristic findings of this condition.
 ...
PMID:Clinical pearls in pediatric cardiology. 2162 39

Patients with infective endocarditis (IE) are generally referred to the intensive care unit (ICU) for one or more organ dysfunctions caused by complications of IE. Neurologic events are frequent causes of ICU admission in patients with IE. They can arise through various mechanisms consisting of stroke or transient ischemic attack, cerebral hemorrhage, mycotic aneurysm, meningitis, cerebral abscess, or encephalopathy. Most complications occur early during the course of IE and are a hallmark of left-sided abnormalities of native or prosthetic valves. Occlusion of cerebral arteries, with stroke or transient ischemic attack, accounts for 40% to 50% of the central nervous system complications of IE. CT scan is the most easily feasible neuroimaging in critically unstable patients. However, magnetic resonance imaging is more sensitive and when performed should follow a standardized protocol. In patients with ischemic stroke who are already receiving oral anticoagulant therapy, this treatment should be replaced by unfractionated heparin for at least 2 weeks with a close monitoring of coagulation tests. Mounting evidence shows that, for both complicated left-sided native valve endocarditis and Staphylococcus aureus prosthetic valve endocarditis, valve replacement combined with medical therapy is associated with a better outcome than medical treatment alone. In a recent series, approximately 50% of patients underwent valve replacement during the acute phase of IE before completion of antibiotic treatment. After a neurological event, most patients have at least one indication for cardiac surgery. Recent data from literature suggest that after a stroke, surgery indicated for heart failure, uncontrolled infection, abscess, or persisting high emboli risk should not be delayed, provided that the patient is not comatose or has no severe deficit. Neurologic complications of IE contribute to a severe prognosis in ICU patients. However, patients with only silent or transient stroke had a better prognosis than patients with symptomatic events. In addition, more than neurologic event per se, a better predictor of mortality is neurologic dysfunction, which is associated with location and extension of brain damage. Patients with severe neurological impairment and those with brain hemorrhage have the worse outcome.
 ...
PMID:Management of neurological complications of infective endocarditis in ICU patients. 2190 36

A usually fit and well 69-year-old woman presented with headache and altered consciousness. Initial clinical findings and investigations were consistent with a diagnosis of pneumococcal meningitis and pneumonia. Cultures of blood and cerebrospinal fluid grew Streptococcus pneumoniae. The patient continued to spike temperatures and developed cardiac failure. A transoesophageal echocardiogram demonstrated a large vegetation of the aortic valve causing severe aortic regurgitation. A diagnosis of Austrian syndrome, the triad of pneumococcal meningitis, pneumonia and endocarditis, was made. The patient has completed a course of appropriate antibiotic therapy and is awaiting aortic valve surgery.
 ...
PMID:Austrian syndrome: a case report and review of the literature. 2191 64

Neurologic dysfunction complicates the course of 10-40% of left-side infective endocarditis (IE). In right-sided IE, instead, when systemic emboli occur, paradoxical embolism should be considered. The spectrum of neurologic events includes embolic cerebrovascular complication (CVC), intracranial haemorrhage, ruptured mycotic aneurysm, transient ischaemic attack (TIA), meningitis, encephalopathy and brain abscess. Cardiopulmonary bypass might exacerbate neurological deficits due to: heparinization and secondary cerebral haemorrhage; hypotension and cerebral oedema in areas of the disrupted blood brain barrier. A best evidence topic was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was, whether there is an optimal timing for surgery in IE with CVCs. One hundred papers were found using the reported search criteria, and out of these 20 papers, provided the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results were tabulated. We found that evidence is conflicting because of lack of controlled studies. The optimal timing for the valve replacement depends on the type of neurological complication and the urgency of the operation. The new 2009 Guidelines on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infective endocarditis (IE) recommend a multidisciplinary approach and to wait for 1-2 weeks of antibiotics treatment before performing cardiac surgery. However, early surgery is indicated in: heart failure (class 1 B), uncontrolled infection (class 1 B) and prevention of embolic events (class 1B/C). After a stroke, surgery should not be delayed as long as coma is absent and cerebral haemorrhage has been excluded by cranial CT (class IIa level B). After a TIA or a silent cerebral embolism, surgery is recommended without delay (class 1 level B). In intracranial haemorrhage (ICH), surgery must be postponed for at least 1 month (class 1 level C). Surgery for prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) follows the general principles outlined for native valve IE. Every patient should have a repeated head CT scan immediately before the operation to rule out a preoperative haemorrhagic transformation of a brain infarction. The presence of a haematoma warrants neurosurgical consultation and consideration of cerebral angiography to rule out a mycotic aneurysm.
 ...
PMID:What is the optimal timing for surgery in infective endocarditis with cerebrovascular complications? 2210 25

The frequency of autopsies appears to be declining, and the usefulness has been challenged. We reviewed cases of autopsied active infective endocarditis (IE) during 2 periods based on the availability of high-tech 2-dimensional echocardiograms: Period 1 (P1) included 40 cases studied from 1970 to 1985, and Period 2 (P2) included 28 cases seen from 1986 to 2008--that is, before and after the introduction of echocardiograms in our institution. We conducted the study to reassess the pathology of IE and to determine how frequently diagnosis is not made during life.The age of patients increased 10 years on average between the 2 periods, and comorbidities were significantly more frequent in P2. While the frequency of rheumatic valve disease and prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) decreased, degenerative valve disease increased. Isolated mitral or aortic valve IE was most common. Right-sided IE was observed in patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia from infected venous lines. In most cases IE involved only the cusps of cardiac valves. "Virulent" microorganisms caused ulcerations, rupture, and perforation of the cusps and necrosis of chordae tendiniae and perivalvular apparatus. In PVE the lesions were located behind the site of attachment, and vegetations were seen on the sewing ring in both metallic and biologic prostheses. Infection spread to adjacent structures and myocardium with ring abscess observed in 88% of cases. Prosthetic detachment causing valve regurgitation was associated with abscesses in 76% of cases; these patients developed persistent sepsis and severe cardiac failure. Obstruction occurred in patients with PVE of the mitral valve. Acute purulent pericarditis was observed in 22% of cases, mainly in patients with aortic valve IE and myocardial abscesses.Gross infarcts were seen in 63% of cases but were asymptomatic in most instances. The spleen, kidneys, and mesentery were the sites most frequently involved. Myocardial infarctions were found in less than 10% of cases. Abscesses were also frequently found and were a common source of persistent fever and bacteremia. Glomerulonephritis was more common in the first period. Brain pathology consisted of ischemic and hemorrhagic infarcts and abscesses. Cerebral bleeding was more frequent in patients with PVE on anticoagulant therapy. Neutrophilic meningitis was observed in S. aureus IE.Diagnosis of IE was not made during life in 14 (35%) cases during P1 and 12 (42.8%) cases in P2. Overall, diagnosis was missed until autopsy in 38.2% of cases. IE was hospital acquired in 28 instances. While a clinical diagnosis was made in all but 4 cases of early-onset PVE (23.5%), the diagnosis was not made during life in 22 of 51 patients with native-valve IE (43.1%). Of these 22 patients, IE was hospital acquired in 11 (50%). The absence of fever, cardiac murmurs, and many of the typical stigmata of endocarditis may have led to the diagnosis being overlooked clinically.Brain bleeding, cardiac failure and less frequently acute myocardial infarct were the most common causes of death.IE continues to be missed frequently until autopsy. Postmortem examination is an important tool for evaluating the quality of care, and for guiding teaching and research related to cardiovascular infections.
 ...
PMID:Infective endocarditis at autopsy: a review of pathologic manifestations and clinical correlates. 2254 28


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next >>