Common oral microbe key to puzzling endocarditis: case study
UK doctors say their patient highlights dangers of ignoring 'unusual' and seemingly benign pathogens that repeatedly appear in blood cultures
A rare case of endocarditis resulting from dental caries has prompted UK doctors to warn against dismissing “unusual” pathogens repeatedly isolated from blood cultures.
Their patient, an otherwise fit and healthy man in his 20s, ended up losing five teeth to manage the infection, along with weeks of antibiotic therapy and mitral valve surgery.
He first presented to ED at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield with a three-day history of headache, fever, sore throat and vomiting.
Writing in BMJ Case Reports, the case doctors say he was flushed, tachycardic with a regular pulse of 110bpm and had a slight fever of 38°C; no heart murmurs were heard on auscultation.
