Endocarditis and Injection Drug Use: A Contemporary Perspective

Infective endocarditis associated with IVDU is increasing and involves additional health burdens.

Intravenous drug use (IVDU) is a well-known risk factor for the development of infective endocarditis (IE). Marked increases in overdose deaths in the U.S. during the opiate epidemic have appropriately been widely publicized, and other opiate-related sequelae, including IE due to IVDU, have presumably also risen. To learn more about IVDU-associated IE, investigators analyzed the U.S. National Readmissions Database, from which they identified 27,432 hospitalizations for IE associated with IVDU between 2010 and 2015 and 96,344 hospitalizations for non-IVDU IE.

IVDU-associated hospitalizations for IE rose by almost 600 per year and accounted for a rising proportion of all IE hospitalizations (15% in 2010 and 29% in 2015). People with IVDU-assoc…

Reviewing Author

Frederick A. Masoudi, MD, MSPH, FACC, FAHA

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardBristol Myers Squibb; CPC Clinical Research

Grant/Research SupportNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Editorial BoardsUpToDate; American College of Cardiology Self-Assessment Program (SAP)

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesAmerican College of Cardiology (Chair, Innovations Committee)