Acute neurological symptoms as a debut of infective endocarditis

Abstract

Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infl ammatory disease of the endocardium of the heart affecting heart valves (native or prosthetic) and, in the last few decades, also available intracardiac permanent devices or catheters. Despite technological progress and accumulated experience, this disease continues to be a huge challenge for doctors in terms of diagnosis, treatment and improvement of survival. The clinical picture is atypical and heterogeneous, with different clinical "masks" of other diseases – infectious, oncological, hematological, rheumatological, neurological, etc. Embolic complications are often the fi rst manifestation of the disease and are most often cerebral. We present a clinical case of a 29-year-old woman with acute neurological symptoms as a fi rst manifestation of IE. This case refl ects the atypical clinical presentation of the disease, the importance of new imaging modalities for the precise diagnosis of neurological complications, and the decision on the timing of operative intervention when indicated. The question of IE prophylaxis in moderate-risk patients, such as those with mitral valve prolapse and bicuspid aortic valve, remains open.