Background:
Based on previous studies, enterococcal infective
endocarditis (IE) is considered a unimicrobial,
community-acquired disease of older Caucasian men.Patients and
Methods:
We evaluated the relationship between enterococcal
bacteremia and IE by comparing clinical and demographic
characteristics of all cases of enterococcal IE within an 8-year
period (n = 41) with controls randomly chosen from patients with
enterococcal bacteremia without IE.Results:
By univariate and multivariable analyses, the presence of
a prosthetic valve (PV) and infection with
Enterococcus faecalis were
significantly associated with IE, while age, gender, race,
polymicrobial infection and community-acquired infection were
not. Almost an equal number of women and men had enterococcal
IE. Cases of enterococcal IE were commonly nosocomial (39%) and
polymicrobial (17%).Conclusions:
Enterococcal endocarditis can no longer be considered
exclusively a unimicrobial, community-acquired disease of
Caucasian men. Instead, our data suggest that the presence of a
PV and infection by E.
faecalis are associated with an increased risk for
IE.