Neurologic manifestations of infectious endocarditis

Thirty out of 287 patients (10.4%) admitted to hospital for infective endocarditis between December 1970 and January 1990 had neurological complications. Twenty-three patients had native valve infectious endocarditis and 7 had prosthetic valve endocarditis. The clinical features were characterized by the frequency of aortic valve involvement (23 out of 30) and other complications, especially cardiac failure (16 cases) and peripheral vascular manifestations (7 cases). The commonest organism was the staphylococcus (53% of identified organisms) but the number of negative blood cultures was high (50% of cases). The neurological complication was often the presenting symptom of the endocarditis (19 cases) but it occurred after bacteriological cure in 4 cases. The complications observed were cerebral ischemia (16 cases), cerebral haemorrhage (11 cases), coma (2 cases), and one peripheral neuropathy causing a Claude Bernard Horner syndrome. These complications presented with hemiplegia in 17 cases, a meningeal syndrome in 8 cases, a convulsion in 1 case, a Von Wallenberg syndrome in 1 case, and a Claude Bernard Horner syndrome in 1 case. Twelve patients had a transient or permanent neurological coma. Cerebral CT scan showed ischemic lesions in 7 cases and haemorrhagic lesions in 10 cases. Carotid angiography demonstrated mycotic aneurysms in 6 patients. Twelve patients died: the cause of death was neurological coma (7 cases), low cardiac output (4 cases) and haemorrhagic shock (1 case). Four patients underwent neurosurgery: 3 for clipping a mycotic aneurysm and 1 for drainage of an intracerebral haematoma. Poor prognostic factors were: coma, cardiac failure, cardiac valve prosthesis and, above all, the extent and multiplicity of the neurological lesions. The authors propose the following measures to improve the prognosis: early surgery in cases of large and/or mobile vegetations especially when the infecting organism is a staphylococcus and when a systemic embolism has occurred; routine CT scanning and/or digitised cerebral angiography in all patients with infective endocarditis to detect surgically accessible mycotic aneurysms.