Evaluation of Laboratory Predictors for In-Hospital Mortality in Infective Endocarditis and Negative Blood Culture...

Area of Science:

• Infectious Diseases
• Cardiology
• Hematology

Background:

• Infective endocarditis (IE) is a serious infection affecting heart valves.
• Distinguishing between blood culture-negative and blood culture-positive IE is crucial for prognosis.
• Understanding predictors of mortality in IE is essential for patient management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare characteristics of blood culture-negative versus blood culture-positive infective endocarditis.
• To identify predictors of in-hospital mortality in IE patients.
• To explore the association between biological parameters and mortality in IE.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective study of 126 IE patients hospitalized between 2007 and 2017.
• Collected epidemiological, clinical, and paraclinical data, stratified by blood culture status.
• Utilized receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and area under the curve (AUC) to identify mortality predictors.

Main Results:

• 54% of IE patients had negative blood cultures.
• In-hospital mortality was 28.6%, higher in the blood culture-negative group (17.5% vs. 11.1%).
• Neutrophil count (AUC=0.824), white blood cell count (AUC=0.724), and MELD-XI score (AUC=0.700) were the best laboratory predictors of in-hospital death.

Conclusions:

• Classic laboratory markers like white blood cell and neutrophil counts are associated with IE mortality.
• The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease Excluding International Normalized Ratio (MELD-XI) score is a significant predictor of in-hospital death in IE.
• Blood culture status may influence mortality risk in infective endocarditis.