Infective Endocarditis in the Antibiotic Era

Abstract

IMPORTANT contributions to our knowledge and understanding of infective endocarditis were made by a number of students of this disease in the first third of this century. Thayer,¹ among others, preferred the term infective endocarditis for this disorder, giving it equal emphasis with the more common designation bacterial endocarditis. We have chosen to employ Thayer's terminology because a significant aspect of the changing picture of this disease is an increasing involvement of agents such as fungi and even rickettsias; the term bacterial endocarditis, therefore, is not strictly applicable.In 1955 Kerr² summarized all the significant information concerning subacute bacterial . . .