الفهرس 
Introduction and Aim of the workOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Introduction : Endocarditis is a major health problem. Although IE is uncommon, it is important because it can result in serious complications that need open-heart surgery or even can cause death inspite of antimicrobial therapy. The incidence of morbidity and mortality reach up to 10% of cases. It most often occurs in people with pre-existing heart diseases mostly on top of acquired valvular heart diseases, rheumatic and congenital heart illnesses and less commonly in people with normal hearts. Infective endocarditis (IE) has been classified as acute, subacute or chronic on the basis of the onset, the severity of the clinical presentation, and the progression of the untreated disease.
Conclusions: Blood cultures gave positive results in 33.3. At the same time, cardiac valve cultures findings were positive in only 16.7%, but PCR results were positive in 44.4%. The studied cases were classified into 22 definite cases (36.7%), 21 possible (35%) and 17 rejected ones (28.3%) with more prevalence in males over 60 years old. Viridans Streptococci had the highest prevalence as an etiological agent of IE followed by S. aureus and the isolated strains were to a some extent sensitive to most antibiotics. Cardiac valve tissue culture was of a limited importance in diagnosing IE due to low sensitivity. On the other hand the diagnosis had benefited from adding molecular biologic identification to conventional identification after standard cultures especially in ruling out culture negative cases as PCR showed a sensitivity of 89%, and specificity of 100% when classification of cases into definite and rejected ones according to modified Duke’s criteria was used as a reference standard.