Etiology of Endocarditis in Negative Blood Cultures

Infective endocarditis remains a serious disease that requires fast and specialized support in 2012. However, 24% of endocarditis unanswered etiology. The systematic use of new policy diagnosis, including (i) a systematic use of specific PCR techniques and (ii) the search for markers of inflammatory and tumoral diseases, should increase the number of positive etiological diagnosis of culture-negative samples.

Secondly, because of the seriousness of the disease, the investigators were led to develop a new score: score for admission. This score, realized in less than 4 hours from the admission of the suspected patient with endocarditis, should allow for immediate probabilistic antibiotic treatment after completion of the diagnostic kit. The modified Duke score give its results in 4 to 7 days. With the score of admission thus diagnostic processes are accelerated and, where appropriate, empirical antibiotic therapy started.

Primary: Evaluate the effectiveness of the new diagnostic strategy on etiological identification of endocarditis.

Secondary: Validate the "admission" score compared to the modified Duke score.