Clinical and echocardiographic features of pulmonary valve endocarditis.

Abstract

We studied the clinical and echocardiographic features of eight patients with infective pulmonary valve endocarditis. In two patients, the vegetation was limited to the pulmonary valve; in the six other patients, infective lesions were also present on the mitral or aortic valves. None of the patients were addicted to narcotics. Seven of the eight patients had underlying congenital heart disease. In six patients the organism responsible for the infective endocarditis was Streptococcus viridans. Two-dimensional echocardiography performed using a wide-angle sector scanner was more useful than M-mode echocardiography for evaluating patients with pulmonary valve endocarditis.