SWAN-GANZ CATHETER-RELATED PULMONARY VALVE INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS - ACASE-REPORT

We report the case of a 29-year-old man with decompensated alcoholic c ardiomyopathy who developed a Staphylococcal pulmonic valve infective endocarditis during hemodynamic monitoring, as a consequence of cathet er-related bacteremia. As experimentally demonstrated, the damaging ro le of the pulmonary artery catheter on the endocardial surface plays a major role in the pathogenesis of related right-sided infective endoc arditis. Occurrence of bacteremia in a catheterized patient should be considered as a high risk situation, and righ-heart infective endocard itis must be suspected whenever patient presents fever or bacteremia w ithout obvious site of infection. Doppler echocardiography is the refe rence diagnosis procedure.