Rapid diagnosis of Histoplasma capsulatum endocarditis using the AccuProbeon an excised valve

Histoplasma capsulatum is an infrequent but serious cause of endocarditis. The definitive diagnosis requires culture, which may require a long incubat ion. We demonstrated the ability of the Histoplasma capsulatum AccuProbe to accurately identify this organism when applied directly on an excised valv e that contained abundant yeast forms consistent with H. capsulatum.