INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS: AETIOLOGY, CLINICAL FEATURES, PRINCIPLES OF TREATMENT AND PREVENTION

Infective endocarditis (IE) is characterized by pathogen colonization and endocardium invasion, causing the formation of vegetations - amorphous aggregates, composed of platelets, fibrin, microorganisms and inflammatory cells. IE microbiological aspects are variable from country to country, reason for which, the purpose of this review was to integrate some original data concerning the etiology and antimicrobial resistance markers in microbial strains isolated from infections occurred in patients with underlying cardiovascular diseases in the general microbiological picture IE (i.e. diagnosis, etiology and treatment). In our hospital, the etiology of positive blood cultures and prosthetic devices associated infections occurred in patients with cardiovascular diseases is dominated by Gram-positive cocci, especially S. aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS), followed by Gram-negative fermentative and non-fermentative bacilli. The major concerns regarding the resistance markers of the isolated strains are the methicillin and macrolides lincosamides streptogramines resistance exceeding 50%, both in S. aureus and CNS and the aminoglycosides high level resistance (30%) in E. faecium strains.