Infective Endocarditis - Cause

Cause

In a healthy individual, a bacteremia (where bacteria get into the blood stream through a minor cut or wound) would normally be cleared quickly with no adverse consequences. If a heart valve is damaged and covered with a piece of blood clot, the valve provides a place for the bacteria to attach themselves and an infection can be established.

In the past, bacteremia caused by dental procedures (in most cases due to streptococci viridans, which reside in oral cavity), such as a cleaning or extraction of a tooth was thought to be more clinically significant than it actually was. However, it is important that a dentist or a dental hygienist be told of any heart problems before commencing treatment. Antibiotics are administered to patients with certain heart conditions as a precaution, although this practice has changed in the US, with new American Heart Association guidelines released in 2007, and in the UK as of March 2008 due to new NICE guidelines. Everyday tooth brushing and flossing will similarly cause bacteremia. Although there is little evidence to support antibiotic prophylaxis for dental treatment, the current American Heart Association guidelines are highly accepted by clinicians and patients.

Other conditions that result in high number of bacteria entering into the bloodstream include Colorectal cancer (mostly Streptococcus bovis), serious urinary tract infections (mostly enterococci), and drug injection (Staphylococcus aureus). With a large number of bacteria, even a normal heart valve may become infected.

A more virulent organism (such as Staphylococcus aureus) can cause infective endocarditis by infecting even a normal heart valve.

Intravenous drug users tend to get their right-sided heart valves infected because the veins that are injected drain into the right side of the heart. In rheumatic heart disease, infection occurs on the aortic and the mitral valves on the left side of the heart.

Other factors that increase the risk of developing infective endocarditis are low levels of white blood cells, immunodeficiency or immunosuppression, malignancy, diabetes, and alcohol abuse.