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Corynebacterium Diphtheriae Endocarditis with Multifocal Septic Emboli: Can Prompt Diagnosis Help Avoid Surgery?

Vasileios Patris, Orestis Argiriou, Charalampos Konstantinou, Niki Lama, Haris Georgiou, Emmanouil Katsanevakis, Mihalis Argiriou, Christos Charitos

(Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart and Chest Hospital, Liverpool, United Kingdom)

Am J Case Rep 2014; 15:352-354

DOI: 10.12659/AJCR.890855

Background: Although Corynebacterium diphtheriae is well known for causing diphtheria and other respiratory tract infections, in very rare cases it can lead to severe systemic disease.
Case Report: This is a case of a previously healthy young man (no prosthetic valve in situ or other known congenital defect), presenting with a Corynebacterium diphtheriae infection leading to endocarditis. The patient reported no I.V. drug use, so it can be assumed that no risk factors for infective endocarditis were present.
Conclusions: This report aims to raise suspicion for this specific infection in order to proceed with the right treatment as soon as possible.

Keywords: Corynebacterium Infections - microbiology, Anti-Bacterial Agents - therapeutic use, Corynebacterium diphtheriae - isolation & purification, DNA, Bacterial - analysis, Diagnosis, Differential, Echocardiography, Endocarditis, Bacterial - microbiology, Tomography, X-Ray Computed, young adult

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