TABLE 1.
Comparison of the epidemiological characteristics of patients with B. quintana endocarditis and of those with B. henselae endocarditisa
| Epidemiological characteristic(s) | Value for group with species-level diagnosis on the basis of:
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Culture and/or PCR results
|
Serological testing
|
|||||
| B. quintana endocarditis (n = 22) | B. henselae endocarditis (n = 5) | P | B. quintana endocarditis (n = 15) | B. henselae endocarditis (n = 7) | P | |
| Mean age (yr) | 46 | 56 | NSb | 57 | 53 | NS |
| Male | 18 | 3 | NS | 13 | 5 | NS |
| Homelessness and/or chronic alcoholism and/or contact with body lice | 17 | 0 | <0.005 | 9/14c | 0/6c | <0.05 |
| Contact with cats and/or cat fleas and previous valvular disease | 3 | 5 | <0.001 | 3/14c | 4/5c | <0.05 |
a
Comparisons among the 27 patients with culture- and/or PCR-proven endocarditis were performed separately from those performed among the 22 patients with serology-based etiologic diagnoses. Except where otherwise indicated, all non-P values are numbers of patients.
b
NS, not significant.
c
Value is the number of patients with the characteristic(s)/total number of patients tested.