Role of Echocardiography in Endocarditis
Purpose:To determine the role of echocardiography in diagnosis of infective endocarditis and show interesting endocarditis cases.Materials and Methods:We retrospectively reviewed 10 endocarditis cases who underwent transthoracic echocardiography and transesophageal echocardiography while finding out vegetations in idiopathic fever patients from Tropical hospital. Results:One case was diagnosed as big vegetation which we confused with myxoma on transthoracic echocardiography and confirmed endocarditis on transesophageal echocardiography , one case was diagnosed as vegetation of pulmonary valve, one case was diagnosed as vegetation of mitral valve in Thalassemia patient, one case was diagnosed in intravenous drug abuse and other cases were diagnosed as vegetations in rheumatic valvulopathy and congenital heart disease.All of those cases were admitted and followed up during treatment. Conclusions:Echocardiography plays an important role in diagosis of patients with endocarditis. The diagnostic accuracy of echocardiography has been enhanced by multiplanar transesophageal probes.