Conventional and transoesophageal echocardiography in the diagnosis of infective endocarditis

Abstract

Echocardiography is commonly accepted as the method of choice for non-invasive assessment of vegetations and valve destruction in patients with infective endocarditis. The sensitivity of the technique for diagnosing endocarditis-induced lesions increases from about 60% to more than 70% when the two-dimensional transthorucic technique is used in addition to the M-mode approach; a detection rate higher than 90% can be obtained when transoesophageal imaging is used. In addition, transoesophageal echocardiography seems to be a most-valuable tool for the pre-operative assessment of endocarditis-associated abscesses.