[Infective endocarditis at the University Hospital of Dakar. Clinical, outcome, and therapeutic features].

Mainly because of rheumatic fever,infective endocarditis (IE) is frequent in our countries and is associated with many diagnostic and therapeutic problems. We perform a retrospective study on 86 cases of IE hospitalized from December 1986 to November 1996. The prevalence of IE is 4.3% and there is a female predominance (the sex ratio is 0.56). The mean age is 26.45+/-13.22 years. 74.4% of the patients have of low socioeconomic status. The mean duration of inhospital stay is 54 days and the average diagnosis retardation is 35 days. The source of infection is found in 19 cases (15 sources are dental). The main clinical signs are: fever (63.9%), anaemia (67.4%) and weight loss (38.3%). The underlying heart disease is mainly due to rheumatic valve regurgitation (95.3%). The blood culture find microbialagent in 12.7%. Echocardiography reveals vegetations in 69.7% of patients. The main complications are : heart failure (47.6%) and stroke (33.7%). The mortality rate is high (30.7%). The treatment is only medical, none of the patients has surgical repair. This study shows that IE is frequent and is associated with many complications and a high mortality rate. These observations amphasize the importance of prevention of rheumatic fever.