Diagnosis of Cardiobacterium hominis endocarditis by broad-range PCR from arterio-embolic tissue

A case of culture-negative endocarditis is reported, in which the diagnosis of Cardiobacterium hominis endocarditis was made from arterio-embolic tiss ue removed by percutaneous transluminal embolectomy by broad-range polymera se chain reaction amplification of the 16 rRNA gene, followed by single-str and sequencing. The use of this technique to identify etiologic agents from arterio-embolic material has not been reported so far. A serologic assay e mploying complement fixation against a crude antigen of Cardiobacterium hom inis confirmed the diagnosis of endocarditis caused by this unusual fastidi ous etiologic agent.