TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rello, Pau 
AU  - González-Alujas, Teresa 
AU  - Escolà-Vergé, Laura 
AU  - Roque, Albert 
AU  - Sureda, Carlos 
AU  - Soriano-Colomé, Toni 
AU  - Oristrell, Gerard 
AU  - Sambola, Antonia 
AU  - Ferreira-González, Ignacio 
PY  - 2021
TI  - A Case of a Young Patient with Acute Endocarditis and Challenging Diagnostic and Treatment Decisions
JF  - American Journal of Infectious Diseases
VL  - 17
IS  - 3
DO  - 10.3844/ajidsp.2021.120.124
UR  - https://thescipub.com/abstract/ajidsp.2021.120.124
AB  - Despite advances achieved in recent years, Infective Endocarditis (IE) remains a disease associated with high mortality and morbidity. When it involves multiple locations at the same time, deciding the best treatment can become challenging. In some cases, especially in patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis, a definitive diagnosis can be difficult to achieve and multimodality imaging including Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Angiography (PET/CTA) has demonstrated improvement in the diagnostic yield. We present a case of a young patient with two previous thoracic surgeries who was admitted due to a severe Staphylococcus aureus IE affecting the mitral valve and presenting a questionable image in an aortic arch graft. This case illustrates the importance of the Endocarditis Team when it comes to difficult decisions regarding diagnosis and management in a disease with poor scientific evidence.