Management of Culture-Negative Endocarditis: An Updated American Heart Association Statement

The AHA has revisited its recommendations for managing blood culture–negative endocarditis in light of new diagnostic approaches such as sequencing of microbial DNA in plasma.

Blood culture–negative endocarditis (BCNE) is a long-standing challenge for infectious disease clinicians. While treatment recommendations generally have not changed, diagnostics have improved to include more-sensitive blood culturing methods, advanced imaging techniques, and sequencing of microbial DNA in plasma samples. Now, an expert panel from the American Heart Association has prepared a statement on management of BCNE that incorporates currently available diagnostic tools and incorporates clinical scenarios to provide context for real-world clinicians; highlights are as follows.

The patient's receipt of antibiotics before obtaining blood cultures is the most common cause of negative blood cultures in the setting of infective endocardit…

Reviewing Author

George Sakoulas, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardParatek Pharmaceuticals; Nestle Corp.; AbbVie; Shionogi

Speaker’s BureauAllergan/AbbVie; Paratek Pharmaceuticals; Nestle Corp.

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsAntimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy; Open Forum Infectious Diseases