Table 3.
Echocardiographic findings, complications, treatment, and outcome of overall cohort
| Total N = 4195 | NCE N = 2082 | SE N = 2113 | p-Value | Early period (2000–2006) N = 2787 | Later period (2008–2012) N = 1408 | p-Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vegetation present | |||||||
| Intracardiac vegetation (N = 4146) | 3450 (83.2%) | 1650 (80.3%) | 1800 (86.1%) | < 0.01 | 2301 (83.5%) | 1149 (82.7%) | 0.50 |
| Aortic valve (N = 4135) | 1590 (38.5%) | 776 (37.7%) | 814 (39.2%) | 0.35 | 1035 (37.7%) | 555 (39.9%) | 0.18 |
| Mitral valve (N = 4135) | 1546 (37.4%) | 781 (38%) | 765 (36.8%) | 0.42 | 1030 (37.6%) | 516 (37.1%) | 0.76 |
| Tricuspid valve (N = 4131) | 384 (9.3%) | 176 (8.6%) | 208 (10%) | 0.11 | 280 (10.2%) | 104 (7.5%) | < 0.01 |
| Pulmonary valve (N = 4124) | 43 (1%) | 21 (1%) | 22 (1.1%) | 0.91 | 26 (1%) | 17 (1.2%) | 0.43 |
| Complications | |||||||
| Stroke (N = 4107) | 719 (17.5%) | 373 (18.6%) | 346 (16.5%) | 0.08 | 455 (16.8%) | 264 (19%) | 0.08 |
| Embolization non-stroke (N = 4096) | 1136 (27.7%) | 530 (26.4%) | 606 (29%) | 0.07 | 660 (24.4%) | 476 (34.2) | < 0.01 |
| CHF (N = 4093) | 1305 (31.9%) | 578 (28.9%) | 727 (34.7%) | < 0.01 | 793 (29.3%) | 512 (37%) | < 0.01 |
| Persistent positive blood culturea (N = 4027) | 293 (7.3%) | 130 (6.5%) | 163 (8%) | 0.06 | 171 (6.3%) | 122 (9.2%) | < 0.01 |
| Intracardiac abscess (N = 4122) | 698 (16.9%) | 386 (19%) | 312 (14.9%) | < 0.01 | 392 (14.3%) | 306 (22.1%) | < 0.01 |
| Treatment/outcome | |||||||
| Surgical therapyb (N = 4162) | 2163 (52%) | 1177 (56.9%) | 986 (47.1%) | < 0.01 | 1349 (48.7%) | 814 (58.4%) | < 0.01 |
| Time elapsed between admission and surgery (N = 2163) (days) | 1899 (87.8%) | 15 (6–30) | 18 (9–32) | < 0.01 | 17 (8–32) | 15 (6–29) | < 0.01 |
| In-hospital deathc (N = 4169) | 806 (19.3%) | 387 (18.7%) | 419 (19.9%) | 0.34 | 558 (20.1%) | 248 (17.8%) | 0.06 |
| Six-month mortality (N = 4187) | 939 (22.4%) | 439 (21.2%) | 500 (23.7%) | 0.05 | 649 (23.4%) | 290 (20.6%) | 0.04 |
| Relapses (N = 1973) | 109 (5.5%) | 45 (4.6%) | 64 (6.4%) | 0.08 | 70 (5.6%) | 39 (5.5%9 | 0.18 |
NCE Northern and Central European countries; SE Southern European countries; CHF congestive heart failure
aPersistent blood cultures were defined as blood cultures that remained positive after 7 days of effective therapy
bIn the NCE region, the rates of cardiac surgery in the periods 2000–2006 and 2008–2012 were 53.05% (N = 766) and 63.34% (N = 411), respectively. In the SE region they were 43.83% (N = 583) and 52.75% (N = 403) in the same time periods
cIn the NCE region, the in-hospital mortality rates in the periods 2000–2006 and 2008–2012 were 19.25% (N = 279) and 17.06% (N = 411), respectively. In the SE region they were 20.85% (N = 279) and 18.06% (N = 140) in the same time periods