Secular trends in the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of Enterococcus faecalis infective endocarditis at a referral center (2007-2018)

Enterococcal Infective Endocarditis - Post discharge treatment with continuous benzylpenicillin and ceftriaxone: A retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Enterococcal Infective Endocarditis (EIE) is usually treated with the combination of penicillin/ampicillin with gentamicin or ampicillin with ceftriaxone. To enable prolonged outpatient treatment, a combination of benzylpenicillin and ceftriaxone has been suggested. This study aimed to describe the incidence and characteristics of EIE and to determine the outcome of EIE cases treated with benzylpenicillin and ceftriaxone.

METHODS

This was a retrospective single-center study including all patients diagnosed with infective endocarditis (IE) during 2016-2021, comparing EIE with IE caused by other pathogens. We described the outpatient treatment of patients with EIE, comparing those treated of benzylpenicillin - ceftriaxone with other regimes.

RESULTS

Among 222 patients with IE, 44 (20%) were diagnosed with EIE. Those were older, had a male predominance (p = 0.035), and were more disabled (p = 0.004). The incidence of EIE reached 30% towards the last year, becoming the leading etiology. Twenty-six patients received outpatient treatment, five of whom were discharged with benzylpenicillin and ceftriaxone. Adding patients from this cohort to the scarce data available, revealed similar recurrence and mortality rates compared to other treatment regimes.

CONCLUSIONS

EIE is becoming a more frequent cause of IE, involving older, more disabled patients with male predominance. Our experience and existing literature suggest that the combination of benzylpenicillin and ceftriaxone is as safe as more conventional regimes, although further research is needed.

Enterococcal endocarditis management and relapses

Introduction

Enterococcus faecalis is the third micro-organism causing endocarditis and is associated with a significant relapse rate. The objective of this study was to describe the management of patients with Enterococcus faecalis endocarditis (EE) and its implication for relapses.

Methods

We conducted a monocentric, retrospective analysis of all patients hospitalized for EE including endocarditis or infection of cardiac implantable electronic device defined by the modified ESC 2015 Duke criteria in a referral centre in Paris, France.

Results

Between October 2016, and September 2022, 54 patients with EE were included, mostly men (n = 40, 74%) with a median age of 75 [68-80] years. A high risk for infective endocarditis (IE) was found in 42 patients (78%), including 14 (26%) previous histories of IE, and 32 (59%) histories of valvular cardiac surgery. The aortic valve was the most frequently affected (n = 36, 67%). Combination therapy was mainly amoxicillin-ceftriaxone during all the curative antibiotic therapy duration (n = 31, 57%). Surgery was indicated for 40 patients (74%), but only 27 (50%) were operated on, mainly due to their frailty. Among the 17 deaths (32%), six (11%) happened during the first hospitalization for EE. A suppressive antibiotic treatment was initiated in 15 (29%) patients, mostly because of not performing surgery. During the 6-year study period an EE relapse occurred in three (6%) patients.

Conclusions

EE is a worrying disease associated with a high risk of relapse and significant mortality. Suppressive antibiotic therapy could be a key treatment to limit the occurrence of relapses.

Trends of Infective Endocarditis at Two Teaching Hospitals: A 12-Year Retrospective Cohort Study in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

BACKGROUND

Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, the incidence and mortality of infective endocarditis (IE) have increased in recent decades. Studies on the risk factors for mortality in endocarditis in Latin America are scarce.

METHODS

This retrospective cohort study included 240 patients diagnosed with IE according to the modified Duke criteria who were admitted to two university hospitals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from January 2009 to June 2021. Poisson regression analysis was performed for trend tests. The multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of predictors of in-hospital mortality.

FINDINGS

The median age was 55 years (IQR: 39-66 years), 57% were male, and 41% had a Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score > 3. Healthcare-associated infective endocarditis (54%), left-sided native valve IE (77.5%), and staphylococcal IE (26%) predominated. Overall, in-hospital mortality was 45.8%, and mortality was significantly higher in the following patients: aged ≥ 60 years (53%), CCI score ≥ 3 (60%), healthcare-associated infective endocarditis (HAIE) (53%), left-sided IE (51%), and enterococcal IE (67%). Poisson regression analysis showed no trend in in-hospital mortality per year. The adjusted multivariate model determined that age ≥ 60 years was an independent risk factor for in-hospital mortality (HR = 1.9; 95% CI 1.2-3.1; p = 0.008).

INTERPRETATION

In this 12-year retrospective cohort, there was no evidence of an improvement in survival in patients with IE. Since older age is a risk factor for mortality, consensus is needed for the management of IE in this group of patients.

Endocarditis in critically ill patients: a review

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

To summarize the advances in literature that support the best current practices regarding infective endocarditis (IE) in critically ill patients.

RECENT FINDINGS

IE due to rheumatic diseases has decreased significantly, and in fact, the majority of cases are associated with degenerative valvopathies, prosthetic valves, and cardiovascular implantable electronic devices. The Duke criteria were recently updated, addressing the increasing incidence of new risk factors for IE, such as IE associated with the use of endovascular cardiac implantable electronic devices and transcatheter implant valves. The presence of organ dysfunction, renal replacement therapies, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation should be considered in the choice of drug and dosage in critically ill patients with suspected or confirmed IE. As highlighted for other severe infections, monitoring of therapeutic antibiotic levels is a promising technique to improve outcomes in critically ill patients with organ dysfunction.

SUMMARY

The diagnostic investigation of IE must consider the current epidemiological criteria and the diagnostic particularities that these circumstances require. A careful evaluation of these issues is necessary for the prompt clinical or surgical management of this infection.

[Global and national trends in the evolution of infective endocarditis]

For the recent 20 years, substantial changes have occurred in all aspects of infectious endocarditis (IE), the evolution of risk factors, modernization of diagnostic methods, therapeutic and preventive approaches. The global trends are characterized by increased IE morbidity among people older than 65 who use intravenous psychoactive drugs. The epidemiological trend is represented by reduced roles of chronic rheumatic heart disease and congenital heart defects, increased proportion of IE associated with medical care, valve replacement, installation of intracardiac devices, and increased contribution of Staphylococcus spp. and Enterococcus spp. to the IE etiology. Additional visualization methods (fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with 18F-fludesoxyglucose (18F-FDG PET-CT), labeled white blood cell single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and modernization of the etiological diagnostic algorithm for determining the true pathogen (immunochemistry, polymerase chain reaction, sequencing) also become increasingly important. The COVID-19 pandemic has also adversely contributed to the IE epidemiology. New prospects of treatment have emerged, such as bacteriophages, lysins, oral antibacterial therapy, minimally invasive surgical strategies (percutaneous mechanical aspiration), endovascular mechanical embolectomy. The physicians' compliance with clinical guidelines (CG) is low, which contributes to the high rate of adverse outcomes of IE, while simple adherence to the CG together with more frequent use of surgical treatment doubles survival. Systematic adherence to CG, timely prevention and implementation of the Endocarditis Team into practice play the decisive role in a favorable prognosis of dynamically changing IE. This article presents the authors' own data that confirm the evolutionary trends of current IE.

Impact of Enterococcus faecalis Endocarditis Treatment on Risk of Relapse

BACKGROUND

Enterococcus faecalis infective endocarditis (EFIE) is characterized by a higher frequency of relapses than other infective endocarditis. The role of the treatment on its occurrence remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the antibiotic regimen could impact the risk of relapse in EFIE.

MATERIALS

This was a multicenter retrospective study of patients diagnosed with definite EFIE between 2015 and 2019 in 14 French hospitals. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of relapses within the year following endocarditis diagnosis. As death was a competing risk for relapse, Fine and Gray models were used for studying risk factors and impact of treatment.

RESULTS

Of the 279 patients included, 83 (29.7%) received the amoxicillin-gentamicin (A-G) combination, 114 (40.9%) amoxicillin-ceftriaxone (A-C), 63 (22.6%) A-G and A-C (A-G/A-C) sequentially, 9 (3.2%) amoxicillin (A), and 10 received other treatments. One-year-relapse rate was 9.3% (26 patients). Relapse occurred after a median delay of 107 days from EFIE diagnosis; 6 occurred after 6 months, and 6 were diagnosed by blood cultures in asymptomatic patients. In multivariate analysis, surgery during treatment was a protective factor against one-year relapse and death.The cumulative incidence of relapse 1 year after endocarditis was 46.2% for patients treated with amoxicillin, 13.4% with A-G, 14.7% with A-C, and 4.3% with A-G/A-C (P≥.05 in multivariate analysis).

CONCLUSIONS

Relapses after treatment of EFIE are frequent, frequently asymptomatic, and may occur more than 6 months after the initial episode.

Infective endocarditis in pregnant women without intravenous drug use: a multicentre retrospective case series

OBJECTIVES

To describe the clinical features and outcomes of infective endocarditis (IE) in pregnant women who do not inject drugs.

METHODS

A multinational retrospective study was performed at 14 hospitals. All definite IE episodes between January 2000 and April 2021 were included. The main outcomes were maternal mortality and pregnancy-related complications.

RESULTS

Twenty-five episodes of IE were included. Median age at IE diagnosis was 33.2 years (IQR 28.3-36.6) and median gestational age was 30 weeks (IQR 16-32). Thirteen (52%) patients had no previously known heart disease. Sixteen (64%) were native IE, 7 (28%) prosthetic and 2 (8%) cardiac implantable electronic device IE. The most common aetiologies were streptococci (n = 10, 40%), staphylococci (n = 5, 20%), HACEK group (n = 3, 12%) and Enterococcus faecalis (n = 3, 12%). Twenty (80%) patients presented at least one IE complication; the most common were heart failure (n = 13, 52%) and symptomatic embolism other than stroke (n = 4, 16%). Twenty-one (84%) patients had surgery indication and surgery was performed when indicated in 19 (90%). There was one maternal death and 16 (64%) patients presented pregnancy-related complications (11 patients ≥1 complication): 3 pregnancy losses, 9 urgent Caesarean sections, 2 emergency Caesarean sections, 1 fetal death, and 11 preterm births. Two patients presented a relapse during a median follow-up of 3.1 years (IQR 0.6-7.4).

CONCLUSIONS

Strict medical surveillance of pregnant women with IE is required and must involve a multidisciplinary team including obstetricians and neonatologists. Furthermore, the potential risk of IE during pregnancy should never be underestimated in women with previously known underlying heart disease.

Infective Endocarditis: New Challenges in a Classic Disease

Infective endocarditis is a relatively rare, but deadly infection, with an overall mortality of around 20% in most series. Clinical manifestations have evolved in response to significant epidemiological shifts in industrialized nations, with a move toward a nosocomial or health-care-related pattern, in older patients, with more episodes associated with prostheses and/or intravascular electronic devices and a predominance of staphylococcal and enterococcal etiology.Diagnosis is often challenging and is based on the conjunction of clinical, microbiological, and imaging information, with notable progress in recent years in the accuracy of echocardiographic data, coupled with the recent emergence of other useful imaging techniques such as cardiac computed tomography (CT) and nuclear medicine tools, particularly ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission/CT.The choice of an appropriate treatment for each specific case is complex, both in terms of the selection of the appropriate agent and doses and durations of therapy as well as the possibility of using combined bactericidal antibiotic regimens in the initial phase and finalizing treatment at home in patients with good evolution with outpatient oral or parenteral antimicrobial therapies programs. A relevant proportion of patients will also require valve surgery during the active phase of treatment, the timing of which is extremely difficult to define. For all the above, the management of infective endocarditis requires a close collaboration of multidisciplinary endocarditis teams.

Epidemiology of infective endocarditis: novel aspects in the twenty-first century

INTRODUCTION

The epidemiology of infective endocarditis (IE) in this millennium has changed with emergence of new risk factors and reemergence of others. This, coupled with modifications in national guidelines in the setting of a pandemic, prompted an address of the topic.

AREAS COVERED

Our goal is to provide a contemporary review of IE epidemiology considering changing incidence of rheumatic heart disease (RHD), cardiac device implantation, and injection drug use (IDU), with SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as the backdrop.

METHODS

PubMed and Google Scholar were used to identify studies of interest.

EXPERT OPINION

Our experience over the past two decades verifies the notion that there is not one 'textbook' profile of IE. Multiple factors have dramatically impacted IE epidemiology, and these factors differ, based, in part on geography. RHD has declined in many areas of the world, whereas implanted cardiovascular devices-related IE has grown exponentially. Perhaps the most influential, at least in areas of the United States, is injection drug use complicating the opioid epidemic. Healthy younger individuals contracting a potentially life-threatening infection has been tragic. In the past year, epidemiological changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic have also occurred. No doubt, changes will characterize IE in the future and serial review of the topic is warranted.

Enterococcal Endocarditis: Hiding in Plain Sight

Enterococcus faecalis is a major opportunistic bacterial pathogen of increasing clinical relevance. A substantial body of experimental evidence suggests that early biofilm formation plays a critical role in these infections, as well as in colonization and persistence in the GI tract as a commensal member of the microbiome in most terrestrial animals. Animal models of experimental endocarditis generally involve inducing mechanical valve damage by cardiac catheterization prior to infection, and it has long been presumed that endocarditis vegetation formation resulting from bacterial attachment to the endocardial endothelium requires some pre-existing tissue damage. Here we review both historical and contemporary animal model studies demonstrating the robust ability of E. faecalis to directly attach and form stable microcolony biofilms encased within a bacterially-derived extracellular matrix on the undamaged endovascular endothelial surface. We also discuss the morphological similarities when these biofilms form on other host tissues, including when E. faecalis colonizes the GI epithelium as a commensal member of the normal vertebrate microbiome - hiding in plain sight where it can serve as a source for systemic infection via translocation. We propose that these phenotypes may allow the organism to persist as an undetected infection in asymptomatic individuals and thus provide an infectious reservoir for later clinical endocarditis.

Clinical Features and Outcomes of Streptococcus anginosus Group Infective Endocarditis: A Multicenter Matched Cohort Study

Background

Although Streptococcus anginosus group (SAG) endocarditis is considered a severe disease associated with abscess formation and embolic events, there is limited evidence to support this assumption.

Methods

We performed a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from consecutive patients with definite SAG endocarditis in 28 centers in Spain and Italy. A comparison between cases due to SAG endocarditis and viridans group streptococci (VGS) or Streptococcus gallolyticus group (SGG) was performed in a 1:2 matched analysis.

Results

Of 5336 consecutive cases of definite endocarditis, 72 (1.4%) were due to SAG and matched with 144 cases due to VGS/SGG. SAG endocarditis was community acquired in 64 (88.9%) cases and affected aortic native valve in 29 (40.3%). When comparing SAG and VGS/SGG endocarditis, no significant differences were found in septic shock (8.3% vs 3.5%, P = .116); valve disorder, including perforation (22.2% vs 18.1%, P = .584), pseudoaneurysm (16.7% vs 8.3%, P = .108), or prosthesis dehiscence (1.4% vs 6.3%, P = .170); paravalvular complications, including abscess (25% vs 18.8%, P = .264) and intracardiac fistula (5.6% vs 3.5%, P = .485); heart failure (34.7% vs 38.9%, P = .655); or embolic events (41.7% vs 32.6%, P = .248). Indications for surgery (70.8% vs 70.8%; P = 1) and mortality (13.9% vs 16.7%; P = .741) were similar between groups.

Conclusions

SAG endocarditis is an infrequent but serious condition that presents a prognosis similar to that of VGS/SGG.

Current Challenges in the Management of Infective Endocarditis

Infective endocarditis is a relatively rare, but deadly cause of sepsis, with an overall mortality ranging from 20 to 25% in most series. Although the classic clinical classification into syndromes of acute or subacute endocarditis have not completely lost their usefulness, current clinical forms have changed according to the profound epidemiological changes observed in developed countries. In this review, we aim to address the changing epidemiology of endocarditis, several recent advances in the understanding of the pathophysiology of endocarditis and endocarditis-triggered sepsis, new useful diagnostic tools as well as current concepts in the medical and surgical management of this disease. Given its complexity, the management of infective endocarditis requires the close collaboration of multidisciplinary endocarditis teams that must decide on the diagnostic approach; the appropriate initial treatment in the critical phase; the detection of patients needing surgery and the timing of this intervention; and finally the accurate selection of patients for out-of-hospital treatment, either at home hospitalization or with oral antibiotic treatment.