[A case of right-sided infective endocarditis in a drug addict]

A 49-year-old man was admitted to Mitsui Memorial Hospital because of fever of unknown origin. Since one year ago, he had often used intravenous narcotic drugs. Ten months before his admission, he had his first experience of fever and a chill. Four months later, he was admitted to a hospital under the diagnosis of pneumonia and he was treated successfully. After his discharge, he began to use drugs again, which resulted in the repetition of fever and chills during four months prior to his admission to our hospital. On admission, physical findings concerning the patient were unremarkable, except for mild hepatomegaly. ECG and chest X-ray were normal. Laboratory data revealed marked inflammatory changes and severe liver injury. Blood culture disclosed Campylobacter fetus and two dimensional echocardiography showed a large vegetation on the anterior tricuspid valve. He was diagnosed as isolated tricuspid infective endocarditis accompanied with acute hepatitis due to drug abuse. Moreover pulmonary perfusion scintigraphy showed decreased perfusion in the right lower lung field, which suggested that pneumonia of six months ago was due to septic pulmonary emboli from the infected tricuspid valve. The combined antibiotics therapy was successful. By the follow-up echocardiographic studies, the size of vegetation was observed to decrease progressively.