Transthoracic Echocardiography in Assessing Patients With Suspected Endocarditis

Consecutive patients who undergo TOE for suspected infective endocarditis within 15 days after a TTE will be included.

Patients whose diagnosis of endocarditis was established at another center will be excluded.

For each participant, the study will collect demographics (age, sex, BMI), predisposing conditions (e.g., valvular prosthesis or intracardiac device, immunodeficiency, valvular heart disease), potentially modifiable risk factors (e.g., recent dental procedure or surgery, intravenous drug use), blood culture results, infections diagnosed at the time of TOE, clinical evidence of pulmonary and/or systemic embolization, blood tests, in-hospital mortality, and relevant comorbidities (e.g., chronic kidney failure, respiratory insufficiency, prior acute coronary syndrome or stroke, critical limb ischemia).

These data will be used to describe the cohort and to explore how clinical context influences the ability of TTE to rule out IE.

As a secondary endpoint, we will evaluate also the in-hospital outcomes of these patients.

Inclusion criteria

• age over 18 years;
• patients who underwent transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) for suspected infective endocarditis within 15 days of a transthoracic exam (TTE).

Exclusion criteria

• diagnosis of endocarditis was made in another center.