Infective Endocarditis Involving Implantable Cardiac Devices

Implantable cardiac device infection can manifest in various ways, including pocket-site infection, bacteremia, and device-related endocarditis involving leads, cardiac valves, or both. Using data from a large, multinational prospective registry, researchers studied the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with this disease. Only hospitalized adults who met modified Duke criteria for definite infective endocarditis were included in the analyses.

A total of 2760 endocarditis cases were collected between June 2000 and August 2006. Of the 177 cases (6.4%) that involved cardiac devices, 85.9% were associated with permanent pacemakers. Patients with device-related infection were predominantly men (74.0%), with a median age of 71.2. S…