NATIVE VALVE INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS IN ELDERLY AND YOUNGER ADULT PATIENTS - COMPARISON OF CLINICAL-FEATURES AND OUTCOMES WITH USE OF THE DUKE CRITERIA AND THE DUKE-ENDOCARDITIS-DATABASE

The effect of age on the presentation and outcome of infective endocar ditis (IE) is unclear. Many of the available data are based on analyse s of mixed populations of patients including intravenous drug users or those with prosthetic valve endocarditis or native valve IE. We used the Duke criteria to compare the characteristics of 44 episodes of def inite native valve IE in elderly patients (>64 years old) with the cha racteristics of 64 similarly defined episodes of native valve IE in yo unger, nonintravenous-drug-using adult patients (>29 years and <60 yea rs old). Our data suggest that the clinical presentation, characterist ics, and outcome of native valve IE are similar for elderly patients a nd younger adult patients, although elderly patients were hospitalized an average of 12 days longer. Although we found that the occurrence o f renal failure and cerebral embolism during an episode of IE was asso ciated with higher rates of death (odds ratios, 4.8 and 4.0, respectiv ely), age was not a significant contributor to mortality.