Torres, Rosa N. Cruz

Introduction: Patients with sickle cell disease are at risk for many types of cardiac complications. We present a case of endocarditis of the superior vena cava (SVC) in a 22-year-old male with sickle cell disease. Case study: A 22 year old male with sickle cell disease presented to the hospital with 3 days of fever, night sweats, generalized body pains, vomiting and poor oral intake. 6 weeks ago, he had been admitted to an outside hospital for Methicillin related Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia. At that time an implanted venous access port in the patient’s chest was removed and 4 weeks of intravenous(iv) vancomycin were administered. He was admitted to the hospital for sepsis. Blood cultures were drawn which were positive for MRSA. A transesophageal echocardiogram revealed a large mobile vegetation in the SVC ( Fig. 1) The proximal end of the vegetation extended beyond the echocardiographic field of view, so a CT scan of the chest with contrast was performed (Fig. 2) This showed intraluminal filling defects in the distal SVC along with pulmonary emboli in the lower lobes of the lungs bilaterally. His antibiotics were changed to iv daptomycin and ceftaroline but he remained persistently bacteremic for 14 days. Therefore, removal of the SVC vegetation/thrombus was performed using AngioVac venous drainage cannula system. This was followed by resolution of bacteremia, and he was discharged from the hospital 9 days later. Conclusion: Echocardiographic evaluation of endocarditis should involve a comprehensive evaluation of all cardiac structures and not be limited to valves only. AngioVac venous drainage cannula system can be used to remove infected vegetations/thrombus.

Abstract Introduction Pericardial effusion (PE) in patients with infective endocarditis (IE) has been shown to be an independent risk factor for severe complications, however no significant association with mortality has been established. Our study aims to study the significance of pericardial effusion in patients with IE. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis using the United States National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database to identify all the hospital admissions with IE using ICD 10 codes and divided them into two groups based on the presence of PE. The outcomes of interest were in-hospital mortality, in-hospital complications, need for cardiac surgery, and length of stay (LOS). Results A total of 381,300 patients were hospitalized from 2016 to 2019 with IE, of whom 10,370 developed PE. Mean age of patients in the PE group was 51 years and in non-PE group was 61 years with males and Caucasian race being predominant in both groups. PE group had higher rates of in-hospital death (12.7% vs 9%, P≤0.001) and longer in-hospital stay (12 days vs 7 days, P≤0.001) compared to non-PE group. The rates of cardiac surgery were higher in PE group (26.1% vs 8.4%, P≤0.001). The rates of heart failure, heart block, renal failure, cardiogenic shock, and embolic stroke were higher in PE group [Table 1]. Conclusion Our study shows that presence of PE in patients with IE is a predictor for in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and need for cardiac surgery. Also, these patients are at higher risk for heart failure, heart block, cardiogenic shock and embolic stroke. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.