CID 1992; 15 (July) Correspondence 185 Prosthetic Valve Endocarditis and Paravalvular Abscess Caused by Peptostreptococcus magnus

SIR-Anaerobic gram-positive cocci are relatively frequent iso-lates; they are usually components ofmixed infections involving additional aerobic or anaerobic bacteria. Within the genus Pep-tostreptococcus, P. magnus appears to be the most common clini-cal isolate and a significant human pathogen [1, 2]. A limited number of cases of native valve endocarditis caused by anaero-bic cocci have been described [3]. To the best ofour knowledge, we report the first case of prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) due to P. magnus. A 77-year-old woman with a bioprosthetic aortic valve was hospitalized in February 1992 for moderate heart failure second-ary to valvular dysfunction. The patient's prosthesis had been placed 8 months earlier because of a calcified aortic stricture. Three months after valve replacement, the patient presented with a pulmonary subedema, and a transesophageal echocardio