Native Triple-Valve Endocarditis Caused by Corynebacterium striatum Needing Urgent Surgery

Triple-valve endocarditis is a very rare entity and even more so in the absence of prosthetic valves.

We describe the doubly unusual occurrence of native triple-valve endocarditis caused by Corynebacterium striatum in an otherwise immunocompetent 72-year-old woman in an urban hospital in New Zealand. She presented with colitis initially and was treated empirically, and a positive blood culture with C striatum was disregarded as being a contaminant. Upon another presentation with recrudescent fevers, investigations revealed endocarditis requiring urgent valve surgery. Intraoperatively, the rare finding of triple-valve endocarditis was made necessitating prosthetic replacement.

C striatum has been reported to cause only 0.2% to 0.4% of cases of native valve endocarditis.

Often dismissed as a contaminant in blood cultures, C striatum can cause native valve endocarditis and should be regarded with caution in the context of the clinical presentation.