Endocarditis question

[Barry]

Noted in the thread on causes of valve problems that there are more folks here than I would have thought who needed valve-replacement due to endocarditis. Wondering if folks know how they got it, but didn't want to hijack that thread.

I ask because the cause I'm most familiar with is intravenous drug abuse - bacteria from the skin entering the injection site and later forming colonies on the heart's valves. I'm a former drug fiend, and when my heart murmur was found I told the doc about my history and asked him to check for bacterial endocarditis. Turned out that I didn't have it.

Anyway, I don't think there's a whole lot of current or former intravenous drug abusers on these forums, so I'm wondering how folks whose valves were damaged by endocarditis got the endocarditis.

 

[tommy]

Barry,

My source of endocarditis is unknown, but we suspect that it was from the mouth. I had some cuts and minor bleeding in the months prior to contactring SBE.

The valve was defecitve (bicuspid) and so was more receptive to the strep bacteria than a normal valve. The bicuspid valve was undetected prior to SBE, but with noticable murmur for 16 years prior to AVR.

My risk of contracting SBE remains after AVR. I've never inquired why, but suspect that the abnormalities associated with stitching the cuff have something to do with it.

 

[LisaD0365]

Hello Barry,

I got endocarditis...but it didn't damage my heart valves...I don't think any way....I had damaged heart valves before....I got endocarditis from having an emergency c-section without antibiotics....they knew I had a heart mrumur...but not to what extent....so a couple of days after having my son...I started getting a fever....they called a Cardio and he was the first one to diagnose mitral stenosis...but he said it was from Rheumatic fever...even when I asked him if it was from my being ill....he said no...was in the hosp for a month....don't want to go thru that again....although....my 8 y/o son was worth it....actually....ask me again when he becomes a teenager... ...

 

[geebee]

I had undiagnosed rheumatic fever as a child. All my doctors thought I merely had a slight murmur I was born with (once they heard the murmur) so nothing was done, even pre-meds for dental work.

I had a great deal of dental work in my late teens and early twenties (pulled teeth, braces, crowns, etc) all without pre-med. Got endocarditis (although again not diagnosed as such, just as a "severe case of the flu", so no antibiotics). Tanked my mitral valve big time and fast.

 

[nia]

Hello Barry,

My source of endocarditis is also unknown. No cavities, no bleeding in the mouth or from anywhere else, and I don't recall having cold or a sore throat prior to endocarditis either. All blood cultures came back negative, so we'll never know what strain of bacteria caused it. Our guess is that my valve was prolapsing for whatever reason (no murmur detected before MVR), thus was predisposed to endocarditis.

My white blood cell count tends to be on the low side, so maybe my weak immune system, made weaker by pulling an all-nighter to finish a term paper for class, probably couldn't handle whatever that got into my system. Yeah, come to think of it now, it was probably that big term paper that was the source of all evil...

 

[MelissaM]

I got mine from a kiss.

You see, back in my early twenties, I met a man who I liked and decided to kiss him. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a little neckin'. Six weeks later I came down with mono. And strep. And tonsilitis. My throat was closing fast, so an emergency trache was performed and I was airlifted to the nearest medical center.

The trache surgery pooled a bit of blood - a hematoma - near the incision site. The docs said it would resolve. It didn't. Fast forward five years. A biopsy of the hematoma reveals blood, but the area is becoming solidified and pressing against my windpipe.

Another three years pass, and the compression against my windpipe is really becoming bothersome. A consult with the ENT reveals a 50% chance of thyroid cancer. Time for the now-cystic mass to go.

During that surgery, it is my hypothesis that some of the old bacteria from the original hospitalization was released into my bloodstream and attached onto an (undiagnosed) prolapsing mitral valve. . . .six weeks later, bacterial endocarditis was diagnosed.

It all started with a kiss. . ..

 

[liza]

I too, have no idea how I contracted bacterial endocarditis. The cultures came back negative multiple times. I never had any idea I had anything wrong with my heart until I was diagnosed. It's crazy to hear such similar stories, I had really never heard of this disease until my cardiology class in vet school. Then I got diagnosed with it a month later! (After being shuffled around from doctor to doctor for 2 months.) The damage has caused "torrential amounts" of reguritation and I'm currently in the "waiting room" for surgery in 2 weeks.

This is such a great site, I'm sooo glad I found it btw.

Liza

 

[Valve-Viking]

I never heard of endocardities until it hit me and I never knew where
it came from - didn´t have any infected small wound or anything.
BUT I swear I was feeling my immune-system was fighting something
for a long, long time before it broke out. I was really, really tired and
often feeling exhausted of no good reason. Went to the doctor, they
took some standard tests and came up with nothing. So the doctor
asked me if I have a stressful job etc and that I should try to take it
easy. Which isn´t easy in todays ratrace.......

6 months prior to my surgery I started to have small pains in my joints
and I remeber it was hurting a bit in my fingers playing guitar, I was
thinking maybe I started to have rheumatism or something. But then
you take it day by day, I always travelled a lot in my job, so you kind
of life your life from one trip to the other.

I went to the hospital on a sunday and had the surgery tuesday morning,
so I was in a miserable shape, do not know the english term for the blood-
test that shows how bad infection you´ve got, in Sweden it is called "CRP"
and it´s supposed to be below 9 or something, I had 345.....

So when everybody is debating which valve to go for etc, I must say every-
thing was in a feverish haze for me and I just woke up wonderring who the
h*ll put a clock next to my ear.....tick, tick, tick.

My valve was bicuspid, but never detected prior to the endocardities. I
stand a chance of getting it again, but will not lay at home with a high
fever unless an obvious flue, maybe not even then.

I´m back travelling again, last week I went to Indonesia, Singapore and
Vietnam on a business trip, it feels pretty good to get around despite of
my MV & pacemaker. I bring my Coaguchek and test twice a week during
these trips far from home. Also bring along Heparin injections in case
a need to shoot up my INR in case I eat something which will upset my
stomach. In a few weeks time I am off to China for 10 days and will do the
same thing. It works, it really does and I´m glad the disease haven´t
changed my life too much, had to cut down on booze though, but for me
it might be a blessing in disguise in fact.....

Well, that´s my story.


Brgds

Martin

 

[Barry]

Sounds to me from looking at these posts that you can get bacterial endocarditis just about any time that bacteria enters your bloodstream from whatever source and then lodges as colonies on a heart valve. If that's the case, it's surprising that it's not more common.

 

[ClickerTicker]

Nil by mouth

Nil by mouth

My endocarditis entry is also unknown. However, I have a pretty good idea what happened...
Was diagnosed with heart murmour but decided to postpone the valve op for a month or so in order to go on holiday to Egypt. It would be easy to blame Egyption hygiene standards, but I don't think that was it. During that postponement I also decided to have a loose tooth extracted to prevent post-op infections from the root and gum. Although the dentist used the usual large single dose of amoxicillin, I fear that wasn't enough cover and that's how the blighter entered.
I now have to go to the local public dental hospital for all but the most basic inspections (even for the Hygienist) and receive intravenous antibiotics prior to any work on my teeth. I'm always petrified of picking up some other infection there - our hospitals are riddled with MRSA.

 

[Barry]

...our hospitals are riddled with MRSA.

MRSA = "Medication-Resistant Staphococcus..."? If so, what's the "A" stand for?

And if that's what it stands for... Same here. Friend of mine went in for a minor procedure and ended up coming out sporting a glass eye and a coleostomy (sp?) bag due to a runaway staph infection.

 

[Mary]

And I wonder how T-Money is doing. Any word?

 

[tobagotwo]

Aureus. The other half of staph...