A clinical study of subacute bacterial infection confined to the right side of the heart or the pulmonary artery

Abstract

In less than 4 per cent of patients with subacute bacterial endocarditis, the vegetations are confined to the right side of the heart. In patients with patent ductus arteriosus with subacute bacterial endarteritis the infection may be confined to the ductus and the pulmonary artery. A study of thirty-six such cases reported in the literature and five newly reported cases forms the basis for a description of the clinical features of subacute bacterial infection confined to the right side of the heart and the pulmonary artery. The four cardinal diagnostic features of left-sided subacute bacterial endocarditis are of chief importance in the diagnosis of the right-sided type as well, but because the blood cultures are often sterile and embolism is sometimes absent or obscure, greater diagnostic significance may be attached to the other features of the disease.