Differential diagnosis of infectious endocarditis and pseudo-infectious endocarditis in anti-phospholipid syndrome

The description of differential diagnosis signs of pseudoinfectious endocarditis (PsIE) in antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and infectious endocarditis (IE) is given in the article. We investigated 28 patients with APS and IE. Vegetations were found on mitral and aortic valves with the same frequency (64%), both valves were involved in 29%. Differential diagnosis signs included negative blood culture, absence of valvular destruction, inefficacy of antibacterial therapy, presence of other manifestations of APS and antiphospholipid antibodies, cutaneous-muscular biopsy findings, and also characteristic skin and mucous lesions, photosensitization, leucopenia and antibodies to native DNA (in patients with secondary APS).