18F-FDG PET/CT and radiolabeled leukocyte SPECT/CT imaging for the evaluation of cardiovascular infection in the multimodality context: ASNC Imaging Indications (ASNC I2) Series Expert Consensus Recommendations from ASNC, AATS, ACC, AHA, ASE, EANM, HRS, IDSA, SCCT, SNMMI, and STS.

This document on cardiovascular infection, including infective endocarditis, is the first in the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology Imaging Indications (ASNC I2) series to assess the role of radionuclide imaging in the multimodality context for the evaluation of complex systemic diseases with multi-societal involvement including pertinent disciplines. A rigorous modified Delphi approach was used to determine consensus clinical indications, diagnostic criteria, and an algorithmic approach to diagnosis of cardiovascular infection including infective endocarditis. Cardiovascular infection incidence is increasing and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Current strategies based on clinical criteria and an initial echocardiographic imaging approach are effective but often insufficient in complicated cardiovascular infection. Radionuclide imaging with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (CT) and single photon emission computed tomography/CT leukocyte scintigraphy can enhance the evaluation of suspected cardiovascular infection by increasing diagnostic accuracy, identifying extracardiac involvement, and assessing cardiac implanted device pockets, leads, and all portions of ventricular assist devices. This advanced imaging can aid in key medical and surgical considerations. Consensus diagnostic features include focal/multi-focal or diffuse heterogenous intense 18F-FDG uptake on valvular and prosthetic material, perivalvular areas, device pockets and leads, and ventricular assist device hardware persisting on non-attenuation corrected images. There are numerous clinical indications with a larger role in prosthetic valves, and cardiac devices particularly with possible infective endocarditis or in the setting of prior equivocal or non-diagnostic imaging. Illustrative cases incorporating these consensus recommendations provide additional clarification. Future research is necessary to refine application of these advanced imaging tools for surgical planning, to identify treatment response, and more.

[Cardiovascular infections - recent progress and future challenges]. / Kardiovaskuläre Infektionen ­ ein Update.

Patients with previous endocarditis are at highest risk of infective endocarditis (266-fold compared to the general population) - preventive strategies are of particular importance in this patient subgroup. Patients with community-acquired E. faecalis bacteremia should undergo transesophageal echocardiography - according to a recent study the prevalence of endocarditis may be ≥ 20 % in this setting. Several smaller observational studies suggest an association between E. faecalis endocarditis and colorectal neoplasias - colonoscopy should therefore be offered to patients with newly diagnosed E. faecalis endocarditis (particularly in patients with unknown portal of entry). The non-inferiority of partial oral endocarditis treatment has been demonstrated in a selected subgroup of patients characterized by a stable condition/course, small vegetations and the absence of perivalvular complications. Uncritical and early oralisation of endocarditis treatment in patients not fulfilling these criteria may lead to adverse treatment outcomes. Approximately one out three patients with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) will suffer from LVAD-related infections during the first year after implantation. Appropriate antibiotic treatment and adequate surgical debridement are essential management strategies.

Surgical Management and Outcomes of Cardiac and Great Vessels Echinococcosis: A 16-Year Experience.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac involvement is an uncommon presentation of hydatid disease. In this study, we aim to analyze the experience of surgical treatment of cardiac and great vessels echinococcosis in our cardiovascular and thoracic surgery department. METHODS: Through a 16-year period, from 2000 to 2015, 27 patients underwent surgery for cardiac and great vessels hydatid disease. The clinical, operative, and postoperative data were analyzed through this retrospective and descriptive study. RESULTS: Most of our patients came from a rural area. The most common symptom was chest pain. The diagnosis was mainly made by transthoracic echocardiography, which has shown the right ventricle as the most frequent location of the disease. All patients received surgical treatment under cardiopulmonary bypass, and only six surgeries were performed without cross-clamping the aorta. Inhospital mortality rate was 7.4%. CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac hydatidosis is a rare but potentially serious condition whose treatment is mainly surgical even for asymptomatic patients owing to its possible fatal complications. The surgery outcomes are usually satisfactory. Follow-up examinations are highly recommended to detect recurrences.

Reimplantation and Repeat Infection After Cardiac-Implantable Electronic Device Infections: Experience From the MEDIC (Multicenter Electrophysiologic Device Infection Cohort) Database.

BACKGROUND: Infection is a serious complication of cardiovascular-implantable electronic device implantation and necessitates removal of all hardware for optimal treatment. Strategies for reimplanting hardware after infection vary widely and have not previously been analyzed using a large, multicenter study. METHODS AND RESULTS: The MEDIC (Multicenter Electrophysiologic Device Infection Cohort) prospectively enrolled subjects with cardiovascular-implantable electronic device infections at multiple institutions in the United States and abroad between 2009 and 2012. Reimplantation strategies were evaluated overall, and every patient who relapsed within 6 months was individually examined for clinical information that could help explain the negative outcome. Overall, 434 patients with cardiovascular-implantable electronic device infections were prospectively enrolled at participating centers. During the initial course of therapy, complete device removal was done in 381 patients (87.8%), and 220 of them (57.7%) were ultimately reimplanted with new devices. Overall, the median time between removal and reimplantation was 10 days, with an interquartile range of 6 to 19 days. Eleven of the 434 patients had another infection within 6 months, but only 4 of them were managed with cardiovascular-implantable electronic device removal and reimplantation during the initial infection. Thus, the repeat infection rate was low (1.8%) in those who were reimplanted. Patients who retained original hardware had a 11.3% repeat infection rate. CONCLUSIONS: Our study findings confirm that a broad range of reimplant strategies are used in clinical practice. They suggest that it is safe to reimplant cardiac devices after extraction of previously infected hardware and that the risk of a second infection is low, regardless of reimplant timing.

Affections cardio-vasculaires et l'infection à VIH en milieu hospitalier universitaire au Burkina Faso : profil épidémiologique, clinique et évolutif, et implications en santé publique

Le Syndrome immunodéficitaire acquis (Sida) constitue l'une des épidémies les plus meurtrières de l'histoire de l'humanité. l'avènement des médicaments antirétroviraux(aRV) en modifiant l'histoire naturelle de la maladie, par l'amélioration de la survie des patients, les exposeraient à l'émergence des pathologies cardiovasculaires. Ce travail avait pour objectif de décrire les aspects épidémiologique, clinique, paraclinique et évolutif des affections cardio-vasculaires au cours de l'infection à Vih, et entrevoir les implications en santé publique. il s'est agi d'une étude rétrospective réalisée du 01 Janvier 2011 au 31 mars 2015, elle a inclus 91 patients Vih recrutés au Centre hospitalier universitaire Yalgado ouédraogo de ouagadougou, présentant des anomalies cliniques et/ou des facteurs de risque cardiovasculaires (FdRCV) évoquant une maladie cardiovasculaire. un bilan cardiologique était réalisé en vue d'une confirmation. l'âge moyen des patients ayant présenté une pathologie cardiovasculaire associant l'infection au Vih était de 45 ± 10 ans avec les extrêmes de 20 et de 83 ans. il y avait 53 femmes (58,24 %) pour un sexe ratio homme / femme de 0,7. les sujets du niveau socio- économique faible étaient les plus représentés avec une fréquence de 56 % des cas. le tableau clinique cardiovasculaire était dominé par l'insuffisance cardiaque globale (28,57 %). les signes majeurs étaient la dyspnée, la douleur précordiale, la toux, la tachycardie et la grosse jambe douloureuse. les manifestations cardiovasculaires étaient diverses, les maladies thromboemboliques (48,35 %) étaient les plus représentées. les atteintes myocardiques (17,59 %), les atteintes péricardiques (15,39 %) et les atteintes de l'endocarde (12,09 %) étaient notées en leurs proportions respectives. il est ressorti que 3,30 % des patients ont présenté un infarctus du myocarde chez des patients vivant avec le Vih (PVVih) sous traitement antirétroviral (aRV). la mortalité hospitalière était de 14,29 %. au vu de leur fréquence, de leur taux de décès et pour leur prise en charge précoce, les atteintes cardiovasculaires au cours de l'infection par le Vih seraient multiformes. une bonne connaissance de la question par le personnel médical et paramédical et une prise en charge précoce contribuerait à la réduction de létalité y afférente

Management of aortic graft infections - the present strategy and future perspectives.

Aortic graft infections (AGI) are serious complications of open and endovascular types of surgery with an incidence rate of 0.6-3 %. AGI are associated with 30-60 % perioperative mortality and 40-60 % morbidity rate with limb amputation rates between 10 % and 40 %. The economic cost of AGI is substantial. At the time of aortic reconstruction, almost 90 % of patients have one or more predisposing factors for AGI. The diagnosis is based on clinical symptomatology, laboratory markers, microbial cultures, and imaging modalities. The general principle of surgical treatment lies in the removal of infected graft, debridement of infected periprosthetic tissues, and vascular reconstruction by in situ or extra-anatomic bypass with long-term antibiotic therapy. The conservative treatment is used only for selected patients with endograft infection. This review summarizes the current knowledge about the incidence, predisposing factors, etiology, diagnosis, treatment options, and prevention of aortic vascular graft and endograft infections. With the growing number of endovascular procedures we can expect more cases of infected aortic endografts in patients with severe comorbidities in the near future, where the recent radical surgical approach (graft excision, debridement, and new revascularization) cannot be used. Therefore the less invasive, sophisticated and individualized treatment strategies will have to be used in search of the best therapeutic approach to each specific patient (Fig. 4, Ref. 82).

Radionuclide Imaging of Cardiovascular Infection.

Owing to expanding clinical indications, cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are being increasingly used. Despite improved surgical techniques and the use of prophylactic antimicrobial therapy, the rate of CIED-related infection is also increasing. Infection is a potentially serious complication, with clinical manifestations ranging from surgical site infection and local symptoms in the region of the generator pocket to fulminant endocarditis. The utility of radionuclide imaging as a stand-alone noninvasive diagnostic imaging test in patients with suspected endocarditis has been less frequently examined. This article summarizes the recent advances in radionuclide imaging for evaluation of patients with suspected cardiovascular infections.

Is 2 weeks of antibiotic therapy enough to treat elderly patients with nontyphoid Salmonella bacteremia? A case report of fatal endovascular infection.

Nontyphoid Salmonella (NTS) can cause invasive diseases in the elderly. Notably, the most feared complication of NTS bacteremia is endovascular infection. The risk factors for infected aortic aneurysm include old age and atherosclerosis. Extended use of antimicrobial therapy (> 2 weeks) for NTS bacteremia should be considered for those who demonstrate the risk factors for endovascular infection, even when a metastatic focus is clinically elusive. Herein, we report the case of a 75-year-old patient with diabetes mellitus, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and myocardial infarction who died of an infected aortic aneurysm despite 3 weeks of antibiotic therapy that was administered to treat the initial NTS bacteremia.

Usefulness of fluorine-18 positron emission tomography/computed tomography for identification of cardiovascular implantable electronic device infections.

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the usefulness of fluorodesoxyglucose marked by fluorine-18 ((18)F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) in patients with suspected cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) infection. BACKGROUND: CIED infection is sometimes challenging to diagnose. Because extraction is associated with significant morbidity/mortality, new imaging modalities to confirm the infection and its dissemination would be of clinical value. METHODS: Three groups were compared. In Group A, 42 patients with suspected CIED infection underwent (18)F-FDG PET/CT. Positive PET/CT was defined as abnormal uptake along cardiac devices. Group B included 12 patients without infection who underwent PET/CT 4 to 8 weeks post-implant. Group C included 12 patients implanted for >6 months without infection who underwent PET/CT for another indication. Semi-quantitative ratio (SQR) was obtained from the ratio between maximal uptake and lung parenchyma uptake. RESULTS: In Group A, 32 of 42 patients with suspected CIED infection had positive PET/CT. Twenty-four patients with positive PET/CT underwent extraction with excellent correlation. In 7 patients with positive PET/CT, 6 were treated as superficial infection with clinical resolution. One patient with positive PET/CT but negative leukocyte scan was considered false positive due to Dacron pouch. Ten patients with negative-PET/CT were treated with antibiotics and none has relapsed at 12.9 ± 1.9 months. In Group B, patients had mild uptake seen at the level of the connector. There was no abnormal uptake in Group C patients. Median SQR was significantly higher in Group A (A = 2.02 vs. B = 1.08 vs. C = 0.57; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: PET/CT is useful in differentiating between CIED infection and recent post-implant changes. It may guide appropriate therapy.

Cardiac infections: focus on molecular diagnosis.

The role of different types of infections in heart diseases is more important than commonly thought, with new and re-emerging infections (i.e., Mycobacterium tuberculosis). This review addresses the pathology of infective pericarditis, myocarditis, and endocarditis, mainly focusing on the significance of molecular techniques in the detection of infective agents. Molecular investigations represent important ancillary diagnostic tools and combined with other conventional approaches provide a more precise final diagnosis. A close collaboration and communication among cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, pathologists, and microbiologists is essential to ensure optimal diagnoses and management as well as a favorable impact on patient outcome.

Fungal infections of the heart: a clinicopathologic study of 50 autopsy cases.

Cardiac fungal infection (CFI) is relatively uncommon, but its incidence is increasing. It is associated with a grim prognosis, but some CFI patients can survive given an early diagnosis and aggressive therapy. To clarify the clinicopathologic features of CFI, a retrospective autopsy study was conducted. Among a total of 4396 autopsy cases collected over a 33-year period (1973-2005), 50 CFI patients (1.1%) were selected and studied clinicopathologically. The study subjects were 32 males and 18 females with a mean age of 65.5 years. Underlying diseases for CFI included solid malignant neoplasms (n=23), hematologic disorders (n=10), chronic renal diseases (n=7), liver diseases (n=5), diabetes mellitus (n=5), and other miscellaneous ailments. Antibiotics were given to 47 patients, while corticosteroids, antineoplastic drugs, and antifungal agents were used for 21, 12, and 12 patients, respectively. None of the patients was diagnosed to have CFI antemortem. Most patients (n=45) demonstrated multi-organ fungal infections with myocardial involvement. Causative pathogens were Candida (n=36), Aspergillus (n=9), Mucor (n=4), and Cryptococcus (n=1). Comparisons between previous CFIs (1973-1989) and recent CFIs (1990-2005) revealed an increasing proportion of non-candidal CFIs (p=0.004) in the latter. Our results point to the clinical importance of defining diagnostic criteria and therapeutic strategies for CFIs, especially for non-candidal CFIs.