[Pulmonary septic emboli in a patient with right-side infectious endocarditis]

An 18-year-old woman afflicted with ventricular septal defect was admitted for high fever and dyspnea. She had undergone no surgical repair. Chest CT showed numerous nodular opacities in both lungs. The majority of them were situated on the pleura. Echocardiography revealed an area of vegetation 20 mm in diameter just beneath the tricuspid valve. Staphylococcus aureus was cultured from venous blood. We diagnosed right-side bacterial infectious endocarditis caused by Staphylococcus aureus and culminating in septic pulmonary emboli. Intravenous panipenem/betamiprom was prescribed, and after 5 weeks, the patient recovered, was negative for C-reactive protein and had a negative venous blood culture. Cardiac septal defect with bacterial endocarditis is a major risk factor in the development of septic pulmonary emboli.