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Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) is associated with infective endocarditis and osteoarticular infection and a 30-day mortality of 20% to 30%. Early identification and control of the infective focus have been shown to improve outcomes, but data are limited on how the infective focus influences clinical presentation and diagnostic procedures.
A prospective cohort study on the clinical characteristics and treatment courses of 266 patients with a first SAB-episode treated in two academic medical centers between 2006 and 2011 sheds some light on this issue.
The dominant infective focus was determined as infective endocarditis (IE) in 40% of patients, central venous catheter (CVC) in 37%, and vertebral osteomyelitis (VO) in 29%; 5% had overla…