Here is a 5 question quiz regarding endocarditis. Medscape Endocarditis Quiz You might find it interesting.
Endocarditis Quiz
- Thread starter tom in MO
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pellicle
Professional Dingbat, Guru and Merkintologist
"Are you prepared to identify and treat IE in patients?"
I don't feel I am ...
I don't feel I am ...
No of course not.
I find Medscape's 5 question quizzes informational and a nice brain teaser. For example I didn't know men are more likely to get endocarditis than woman. It also reinforced what others have said from personal experience, that blood work is the best identifier of endocarditis.
This is true. The challenge is that blood cultures take a couple days to grow the bacteria and turn positive. PCR may be faster but has it's own set of challenges with sensitivity. Physicians may decide to treat empirically until they confirm the infection and identify the bacteria.
Gail in Ca
Well-known member
I lost valuable time when the ER doctor said I had the flu and rotator cuff pain.
Misdiagnosis was the major issue for my case. Two days later, the urgent care doctor that saw me ordered many tests, including blood cultures. That night I saw blood in my urine. My INR was 6. The doctor on call said to skip next days warfarin dose and test again the following day. The night I skipped my dose I had the worst headache of my life. I went back to urgent care, told the same doctor I’d had 2 days before about my headache. She ordered a ct of my head and tested my INR. That CT showed a brain bleed, my INR was 8.3 even after skipping a dose. Still, I heard no mention of endocarditis. I was taken to ER where I was given vit K shots and the doctor thought I had arteritis. My INR was at 9.
Luckily, the blood cultures taken 4 days before came back and they then knew it was bacterial endocarditis. While waiting for results, I got very sick so fast.
Misdiagnosis was the major issue for my case. Two days later, the urgent care doctor that saw me ordered many tests, including blood cultures. That night I saw blood in my urine. My INR was 6. The doctor on call said to skip next days warfarin dose and test again the following day. The night I skipped my dose I had the worst headache of my life. I went back to urgent care, told the same doctor I’d had 2 days before about my headache. She ordered a ct of my head and tested my INR. That CT showed a brain bleed, my INR was 8.3 even after skipping a dose. Still, I heard no mention of endocarditis. I was taken to ER where I was given vit K shots and the doctor thought I had arteritis. My INR was at 9.
Luckily, the blood cultures taken 4 days before came back and they then knew it was bacterial endocarditis. While waiting for results, I got very sick so fast.
I’m so sorry you had to go through this. Identifying endocarditis or septicemia faster is something numerous researchers are working on. It’s just challenging. I do believe we will see a solution, but probably still in the future. Most likely via a cheaper and faster method of sequencing.
Elcarim
Well-known member
That was interesting 
