Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Feb 16, 2021; 9(5): 1221-1227
Published online Feb 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i5.1221
Infective bicuspid aortic valve endocarditis causing acute severe regurgitation and heart failure: A case report
Chang Hou, Wu-Chao Wang, Hong Chen, Yuan-Yuan Zhang, Wei-Min Wang
Chang Hou, Hong Chen, Wei-Min Wang, Department of Cardiology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing 100044, China
Wu-Chao Wang, Department of Emergency, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing 100044, China
Yuan-Yuan Zhang, Department of Pathology, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing 100044, China
Author contributions: Hou C, Wang WM and Chen H designed the paper; Hou C, Wang WC and Zhang YY managed the case and collected data; Hou C and Chen H analyzed the data and wrote the paper; the manuscript has been reviewed and approved by all authors.
Supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China, No. 2016YFC1301105.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wei-Min Wang, MD, Chief Physician, Professor, Department of Cardiology, Peking University People’s Hospital, No. 11 Xizhimen South Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100044, China. weiminwang@vip.sina.com
Received: November 21, 2020
Peer-review started: November 21, 2020
First decision: December 3, 2020
Revised: December 13, 2020
Accepted: December 24, 2020
Article in press: December 24, 2020
Published online: February 16, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Infective endocarditis (IE) is a relatively rare disease with diverse clinical manifestations. We present herein, an uncommon case of bicuspid aortic valve endocarditis in a critically ill patient with acute heart failure, which was finally confirmed by histopathology and microorganism culture. Due to normal body temperature and lack of specific transthoracic echocardiography findings, prompt diagnosis of IE is difficult. This case highlights the importance of transesophageal echocardiography for the detection of vegetations, and IE should be considered especially in patients with severe aortic valve regurgitation and resistant heart failure.