Downey Brian C, Warner Kenneth G, Kimmelstiel Carey
Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02111, USA.
J Invasive Cardiol. 2007 May;19(5):E131-3.
In the modern surgical era, postoperative prosthetic valve endocarditis persists as a potentially devastating complication of valve replacement surgery. While generally resulting in valvular destruction and regurgitation, prosthetic valve endocarditis may also result in valvular obstruction. The diagnosis of prosthetic valve endocarditis may be difficult due to technical limitations affecting the diagnostic capability of transthoracic echocardiography in patients with prosthetic valves and the indolent nature of the infectious process. We describe the first reported case of Aspergillus endocarditis leading to obstruction of a prosthetic valve in a patient with recent aortic valve replacement.
