[Clinical reasoning and decision making in practice. A 23 year old woman with malaise, anorexia, fever and behavior...

A 23-year-old woman presented with a history of some months of malaise, anorexia, fever and behavioural changes. She had been examined by a general physician on repeated occasions before coming to the hospital. After physical examination and laboratory investigations, she was sent home. She returned to the hospital the same day with increased drowsiness and headache. Additional diagnostic procedures were performed. An echocardiography showed vegetations on the mitral valve. A CT scan of the brain showed a left frontotemporal haemorrhage. Infective endocarditis with septic embolisation to the brain, which resulted in a cerebral haemorrhage, was diagnosed. The patient was admitted and intravenous antibiotics were administered. Because of haemodynamic instability, a mitral valve replacement was performed on the fifth day of admission. The patient recovered well postoperatively. Four weeks later, she was found in a comatose condition. She died as a result of a second intracerebral haemorrhage, which was probably caused by a mycotic aneurysm. An important lesson to be learned from this case is that endocarditis should be considered in patients with a long history of anorexia, weight loss, malaise and fever, especially when a heart murmur is present. Secondly, if intracranial haemorrhage has occurred in patients with infective endocarditis, therapeutic options should always be discussed with a neurosurgeon, even in those cases where the probability of a mycotic aneurysm is low.