Lepidi Hubert, Durack David T, Raoult Didier
Unité des Rickettsies-CNRS UMR 6020, Faculté de Médecine, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France.
Infect Dis Clin North Am. 2002 Jun;16(2):339-61, ix. doi: 10.1016/s0891-5520(02)00005-3.
Infective endocarditis (IE) often presents diagnostic and therapeutic challenges and continues to cause high morbidity and mortality. Confirmation of the diagnosis of IE is important for the purposes of epidemiologic and clinical studies and is crucial for patient management. Despite recent advances in diagnostic techniques, about 10% of IE cases remain culture-negative. Because pathological examination of cardiac valves to demonstrate vegetations and valvular inflammation remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of IE, the role of the pathologist is often decisive, especially when bacteriologists fail to isolate a microorganism or when a microorganism that has been isolated may be a contaminant. Furthermore, the pathologist may play an important role in identification of previously unknown infectious agents.
感染性心内膜炎（IE）常常带来诊断和治疗方面的挑战，并且持续导致高发病率和高死亡率。确诊IE对于流行病学和临床研究很重要，对患者管理也至关重要。尽管诊断技术最近有所进步，但仍有大约10%的IE病例血培养呈阴性。由于通过心脏瓣膜的病理检查来证实赘生物和瓣膜炎症仍是诊断IE的金标准，病理学家的作用往往具有决定性，尤其是当细菌学家未能分离出微生物，或者分离出的微生物可能是污染物的时候。此外，病理学家在识别先前未知的感染因子方面可能发挥重要作用。
