[Infectious endocarditis in patients with liver cirrhosis]

To evaluate the clinical and microbiological features of infective endocarditis in patients with cirrhosis we compared 18 episodes of endocarditis in these patients with a control group of patients without liver disease. In 61% of patients with cirrhosis the origin of infection was unknown. Four patients developed endocarditis as a consequence of bladder catheterizations and two after hepatic biopsy. None of the four with previously known valvular heart disease had received antibiotic prophylaxis during these procedures. As compared with the control group, the patients with cirrhosis had more infections by enterococci (38.8% vs 11%; p less than 0.007) and non-viridans streptococci (38.8% vs 7.4%; p less than 0.001) and significantly less infections by viridans streptococci (11% vs 42.5%; p less than 0.01). The mortality rate associated with endocarditis was 38.8% and 22% in patients with and without cirrhosis, respectively (less than 0.1; NS). Infective endocarditis in patients with cirrhosis is often a complication of diagnostic or therapeutic procedures and has distinctive microbiological features.