[Clinico-morphologic analysis of septic (infectious) endocarditis]

Pathomorphosis of the disease has been studied on the basis of clinical and autopsy observations in the last three decades. The importance of staphylococcus, enterococcus, and gram-negative bacteria has been shown to increase among the causative agents of septic endocarditis; frequently the infectious agents have been observed to alternate in the course of the disease. Many manifestations of endocarditis were established to be associated with the circulating immune complexes containing bacterial antigens. In the last decade, primary septic endocarditis comprised about half of the observations. The proportion of isolated endocarditis and destructive changes of aortal valves increased. Myocarditis has become more frequent and in more than half of the cases it is associated with glomerulonephritis. In contrast, peripheral manifestations of endocarditis have considerably lost their diagnostic value. Among thromboembolic complications, venous thromboembolus of the pulmonary artery, and pulmonary infarction became more prevalent.