Typhoid cardiac involvement.

Three cases of typhoid cardiac complications are reported. Salmonella typhi was the aetiological agent in all three; The discovery of 3 patients over a period of 18 months merits special interest, especially since typhoid fever is endemic in the area concerned. The significance of the complication reported here is further enhanced by absence of similar specific cases in the English literature dealing with cardiac salmonellosis. One of the cases described in this article, the only fatality of the series, developed a rhythm disturbance identical with that of a patient whose myocardial abscess was due to Salmonella typhimurium. The rarity of typhoid cardiac complications may be deceptive; The septicaemic disturbance may mask it and one must note that cardiac salmonellosis is reported from developed countries, where typhoid fever is a rarity.