[10 fatal endocarditis: autopsy observations, causes of death]

Among 841 autopsies realized between january 1982 and september 1988, by the Pathological the department of Amiens University Hospital the ten patients dead of infectious endocarditis have been autopsied. Macroscopic and microscopic observations have two cases of acute endocarditis and eight of subacute endocarditis. For the two patients dead of acute endocarditis, autopsy affirms the cardiovascular etiology of death. For the eight cases of subacute endocarditis, necropsic findings differs from the germs. In the three cases where the germ is a Staphylococcus aureus, the diagnosis of endocarditis was made before death and the cardiovascular etiology of death was affirmed by autopsy. For the other germs (3 Streptococcus sp, 1 Salmonella typhimurium, and 1 germ unknown), the diagnosis of endocarditis was made by autopsy, but necropsy disclosed the cause of death in only two cases.