Mural infective endocarditis with a mass on the fossa ovalis in the right atrium.

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening disease that affects the endocardial surface of the heart. Although heart valves are commonly involved in IE, in rare cases, vegetation is attached to the cardiac walls without valvular endocardial involvement, which is referred to as mural IE. In this case, a 60-year-old female presented with a seven-day history of fever associated with worsening pain in the right shoulder and left hip. Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. Equisimilis was detected in both blood and joint fluid cultures. Although transthoracic echocardiography revealed no mass, transesophageal echocardiography revealed a mobile mass in the fossa ovalis of the right atrium. She was subsequently diagnosed with mural IE and successfully treated with antibiotics without cardiac surgery. To our knowledge, only a few reports have described mural IE with vegetation in or around the fossa ovalis of the right atrium. This case highlights the importance of transesophageal echocardiography in diagnosing mural IE. The treatment strategy for mural IE should be discussed individually and in a multidisciplinary manner because current IE guidelines may not be applicable to mural IE cases due to differences in disease characteristics and clinical course between mural and valvular IE.

Association of early antibiotic therapy and in-hospital mortality in adult mild-to-moderate acute aspiration pneumonitis: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Patients with aspiration pneumonitis often receive empiric antibiotic therapy despite it being due to a non-infectious, inflammatory response. OBJECTIVE: To study the benefits of early antibiotic therapy in patients with suspected aspiration pneumonitis in an acute care hospital. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study using electronic medical records from Teine Keijinkai Hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Adults aged over 18 years admitted with a diagnosis of aspiration pneumonitis to the Department of General Internal Medicine or Emergency Department between January 1, 2008, and May 31, 2019. A diagnosis of aspiration pneumonitis was defined as a documented macro-aspiration event and a chest radiograph demonstrating new radiographic infiltrates. MAIN MEASURES: Patients were classified into the "early antibiotic treatment" group and the "no or late treatment" group depending on whether they received antibiotic therapy for respiratory bacterial pathogens within 8 h of arrival. The primary outcome was in-hospital all-cause mortality. Secondary outcomes included length of hospital stay, antibiotic-free days, duration of fever, readmission within one month, and incidence of complications. KEY RESULTS: Of the 146 patients enrolled, 52 (35.6%) did not receive early antibiotic therapy, while the remaining 94 (64.4%) did. There was no difference in in-hospital mortality rates between the groups after adjustment for potential confounding variables using Cox proportional hazards analysis (hazard ratio 2.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.57-13.50, p = 0.20). Patients in the no or late treatment group had more antibiotic-free days (p < 0.001) and a shorter length of hospital stay among survivors (p = 0.040) than did those in the early antibiotic treatment group. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups with respect to other secondary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Early antibiotic therapy for acute aspiration pneumonitis was not associated with in-hospital mortality, but was associated with a longer hospital stay and prolonged use of antibiotics.

Culture-negative group B streptococcal pericarditis: A case report and literature review of the diagnostic use of polymerase chain reaction.

Although conventional microbiology cultures may be negative, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can effectively identify both typical and atypical microorganisms. With careful interpretation, PCR could become the gold-standard diagnostic test for culture-negative bacterial pericarditis.

Sudden death of a case of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy 19 months after successful percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation.

A 56-year-old male with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy complicated with medically refractory paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure was treated with percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation. The resting left ventricular outflow tract gradient decreased from 70 mmHg to 0 mmHg after the procedure, and clinical symptoms improved dramatically. However, the patient died suddenly 19 months later and autopsy revealed nontransmural myocardial fibrosis with an irregular border in the interventricular septum.