Kwan-Leung Chan and John M. Embil (Eds)

2006

Diagnosis and Management

Despite advances in medical and surgical treatments, infective endocarditis continues to be an important clinical problem. It has an in-hospital mortality of 10–20%, and many patients will require valve surgery during long-term follow-up. The diagnosis is difficult since it is based on a constellation of findings and none of the clinical findings alone is pathognomonic.