ORCID (Optional)
0000-0002-6774-0738
Document Type
Case Report
Disciplines
Higher Education | Infectious Disease | Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
Background: Cardiobacterium hominis (C. hominis) is an uncommon cause of infective endocarditis and often presents sub-acutely with fevers, cardiac murmurs, or embolic phenomena. We present a rare case of C. hominis infective prosthetic valve endocarditis that presented with new-onset atrial flutter and systemic emboli.
Case: A 38-year-old male presented to the emergency department with palpitations, shortness of breath, and chest tightness and was found to be in atrial flutter. He underwent a transesophageal echocardiogram-guided cardioversion and was incidentally found to have a one-centimeter echodensity on the ventricular side of his prosthetic aortic valve. (Figure 1.) He had a prior history of native valve endocarditis secondary to methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus related to injection drug use necessitating aortic and tricuspid valve replacements. He had refrained from injection drug use since prior to his last episode of endocarditis. He did not have any common signs or symptoms associated with endocarditis, such as fevers, chills, or new murmurs. Blood cultures eventually grew C. hominis, and he was successfully treated with 7 weeks of ceftriaxone prior to a re-do sternotomy with mechanical aortic and bioprosthetic tricuspid valve replacements.
Conclusion: Cardiobacterium hominis is a rare but important to recognize cause of infective endocarditis with an indolent presentation that often leads to delayed diagnoses. Clinicians should have a high index of suspicion for endocarditis in patients with prosthetic valves and systemic or cardiac-related symptoms.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.32873/unmc.dc.gmerj.6.2.001
Keywords
Cardiobacterium hominis, endocarditis, prosthetic heart valve, HACEK organisms
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Griffin, K., Jang, T., Adomako, R., Marcelin, J. R., , Ryder, J. H. Prosthetic Valve Endocarditis with Cardiobacterium hominis: A Case Report. Graduate Medical Education Research Journal. 2024 Oct 31; 6(2).
https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/gmerj/vol6/iss2/1
