PREVALENCE OF INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS IN PATIENTS WHO ARE INTRAVENOUS DRUG ABUSERS ADMITTED IN CARDIOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Objective: To know infective endocarditis frequency and its echocardiographic, clinical and microbiological status. Study Design: A Retrospective Study. Place and Duration: In the Cardiology Department, Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore for 3 years duration from February 2013 to February 2016. The patients who were drug abusers and suspected of Infective endocarditis were hospitalized and selected for the study. Methodology: The medical records of 323 patients who were addicted to intravenous drug use (IDU) were reviewed and 33 cases that met Duke's diagnostic criteria were selected for this study. Microbiological findings, Clinical findings, co morbidities and echocardiographic data was studied in details. Data obtained from non-IE and IE patients were compared in SPSS chi-square test and using t test. Findings: 32 patients with IE were men and with 26.2 mean age. 288 males were Non-IE patients and two females also with an average age of 38.01 years. HIV was positive in 19 of our patients. There were major statistically variations between HIV-negative and Positive patients. Fever and Weight loss were the most common clinical manifestations. The most common organism (24.2%) causing IE is Staphylococcus aureus and most were methicillin resistant staphylococcal coagulase negative (15.1%). In 33.3% of cases Tricuspid valve was involved. Conclusion: Among intravenous drug users (IDU), infectious endocarditis (IE) incidence is greater than those reported in previous studies. IE risk increases with HIV infection. The most common organism is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The most common cardiac valve involved is Tricuspid. Key words: Injectable drug users, infective endocarditis