[Risk of bacterial endocarditis and native heart diseases]

Although there are no epidemiological studies allowing precise evaluation of the risk of infective endocarditis in given cardiac pathologies, a review of the literature allows classification of different conditions in three groups of decreasing risk: 1: high risk group: cyanotic, congenital heart disease, patients with previous infective endocarditis, aortic valve disease, mitral regurgitation and unoperated left-to-right shunts apart from atrial septal defects; 2: moderate risk group: mitral valve prolapse with myxoid valves or a systolic murmur, mitral stenosis, tricuspid valve disease, pulmonary stenosis, hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy; 3: low or negligible risk: isolated atrial septal defect, operated or unoperated (bypass graft) ischaemic heart disease, operated left-to-right shunts without residual shunt, mitral valve prolapse with normal valve thickness and without a murmur, mitral ring calcification without regurgitation.