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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
When children develop infective endocarditis involving a prosthetic valve, it's a different — and trickier — beast than native valve disease. A new Italian study found that prosthetic valve endocarditis strikes older kids, is more likely to be missed on echocardiography, and drives higher rates of surgery. Complications were common across the board, with nearly three-quarters of all patients experiencing a serious adverse event.
When children develop infective endocarditis involving a prosthetic valve, it's a different — and trickier — beast than native valve disease. A retrospective study from Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital in Rome analyzed 95 pediatric patients diagnosed with infective endocarditis between 2013 and 2024, comparing outcomes between those with native valve endocarditis (NVE) and prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE).
The findings reveal stark contrasts: PVE patients were significantly older (median age 15.7 vs. 7.8 years), less likely to have lesions detected on echocardiography (67.7% vs. 93.3%), and more reliant on advanced imaging like cardiac CT and PET/SPECT scans to confirm diagnosis. Pathogen profiles also differed — Staphylococcus aureus dominated in NVE, while viridans streptococci and coagulase-negative staphylococci were more prevalent in PVE.
Key Takeaways:
Why it matters: PVE in children demands a multimodality imaging approach and multidisciplinary team management — standard echocardiography alone isn't enough. As more children undergo cardiac interventions involving prosthetic material, clinicians need to maintain a high index of suspicion and move quickly when PVE is on the table.
