Arq Bras Cardiol: Imagem cardiovasc. 2022; 35(2): eed_15

Infective Endocarditis In India: A Broad Picture Of A Very Large Country

DOI: 10.47593/2675-312X/20223502eed_15

Infective endocarditis (IE) has always been challenging for the medical field, which has responded with newer innovations and persistent efforts. Habib et al. stated “Infective endocarditis is still a life-threatening disease with the frequent lethal outcome despite profound changes in its clinical, microbiological, imaging, and therapeutic profiles”.

Various factors affect the different aspects of IE diagnosis and management. As a developing country, India has a very polar healthcare delivery system. Primary health centers range from basic facilities that provide very primary level healthcare in rural areas to center of excellence hospitals that offer the latest medical innovations in metropolitan areas. The crucial point is the time it takes for a patient to reach to suitable center to receive the appropriate interventions. In particular, the diagnosis of IE by primary healthcare physicians must be obtained as soon as possible. Socio-economic factors play a pivotal role in patient outcomes. All three of these issues pose great challenges, especially in very large countries like India. Sengupta et al. concluded that socio-economic factors influence the clinical profile of patients presenting with IE worldwide, leading to delayed diagnosis and lower use of surgery. Gupta et al. reported observations about IE such as increasing patient age and increased proportions of patients without a history of cardiac ailments, better cultural positivity rates, an increasing incidence of staphylococcal infections, increased usage of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), and increasing elective surgery rates.

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