oa Abstractss from Other Journals

Context Heart failure (HF) is the most common complication of infective endocarditis. However, clinical characteristics of HF in patients with infective endocarditis, use of surgical therapy, and their associations with patient outcome are not well described.

Objectives: To determine the clinical, echocardiography, and microbiological variables associated with HF in patients with definite infective endocarditis and to examine variables independently associated with in-hospital and 1 -year mortality for patients with infective endocarditis and HF, including the use and association of surgery with outcome.

Design, Setting, and Patients: The International Collaboration on Endocarditis-Prospective Cohort Study, a prospective, multicenter study enrolling 4166 patients with definite nativeor prosthetic-valve infective endocarditis from 61 centers in 28 countries between June 2000 and December 2006. Main Outcome Measures In-hospital and 1 -year mortality.