Fig. 3.

Flowchart of infective endocarditis (IE) patients with diagnostic benefit from valve PCR, shown by red box and detailed in Table 3 under the corresponding letters. +: Positive; −: negative; n/a: not available results; ^amarks patients with the difference between blood culture and valve PCR, also in Table S2; ^bmarks 7 patients with negative valve PCRs and 1 case with eubacterial DNA in PCR, but unsuccessful species identification; in all 8 patients valve culture remained negative