Culture Negative Endocarditis : Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment

Culture-negative endocarditis (CNE) is a challenging clinical entity, both diagnostically and therapeutically. In this chapter, the changed epidemiology and microbiology of CNE are reviewed with cases highlighting typical pathogens in patients pre-treated with antibiotics, less common fastidious pathogens such as bacteria of the HACEK group, nutritionally deficient bacteria, Legionella spp. and Mycobacteria, “quintessential” CNE pathogens such as Bartonella spp., Coxiella burnetti and Tropheryma whipplei, as well as fungal CNE. Contemporary diagnostic methods are reviewed including polymerase chain reaction-based pathogen 16s RNA amplification coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (PCR/ESI-MS). Finally, treatment options per the recently updated 2015 American Heart Association and European Society for Cardiology guideline are presented.