Conventional and transoesophageal echocardiography in the diagnosis of infective endocarditis

Echocardiography is commonly accepted as the method of choice for non-invasive assessment of vegetations and valve destruction in patients with infective endocarditis. The sensitivity of the technique for diagnosing endocarditis-induced lesions increases from about 60 % to more than 70 % when the two-dimensional transthoracic technique is used in addition to the M-mode approach; a detection rate higher than 90 % can be obtained when transoesophageal imaging is used. In addition, transoesophageal echocardiography seems to be a most valuable tool for the pre-operative assessment of endocarditis-associated abscesses