Infectious endocarditis in recreational drug users: clinical and diagnostic aspects

Infective endocarditis is a severe inflammatory disease characterized by a predominant lesion of the heart valves, less often a parietal endocardium, great vessels, proceeding as a sepsis with bacteremia, immunocomplex changes and complications. Often the disease ends in a fatal outcome due to drug use. Objective: to study the features of the course of infective endocarditis in injection drug addicts. Research methods: analysis of 20 case histories of patients observed in the intensive care unit 3 of the Samara city hospital for the last 5 years with a diagnosis of infective endocarditis against the background of a confirmed fact of intravenous drug use. The results of the study. Primary endocarditis was diagnosed in 18 patients (90%) and only two patients (10%) had secondary infective endocarditis (in the presence of rheumatic heart disease). A high percentage of infected patients with viral hepatitis (B; C) and HIV infection - 8 people (40%) pay attention. Patients were admitted to the hospital at various times from the appearance of complaints, but no later than 5 months: up to 1 month - 8 people, 1-5 months - 12 people.