Symptoms of Endocarditis

Symptoms of Endocarditis

The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for Endocarditis includes the 16 symptoms listed below:

• Symptoms of mild or chronic cases:
  • Non-specific symptoms
  • Tiredness
  • Weakness
  • Fever
  • Night sweats
  • Aches and pains
  • Heart murmur
• Symptoms of acute cases:
  • High fever
  • Chills
  • Rapid heartbeat
  • Irregular heartbeat
  • Shortness of breath
• Heart block - see symptoms of heart block
• Heart embolism
• more information...»

Research symptoms & diagnosis of Endocarditis:

• Overview -- Endocarditis
• Diagnostic Tests for Endocarditis
• Home Diagnostic Testing
• Complications -- Endocarditis
• Doctors & Specialists
• Misdiagnosis and Alternative Diagnoses
• Hidden Causes of Endocarditis
• Other Causes -- causes of these or similar symptoms

Endocarditis: Complications

Review medical complications possibly associated with Endocarditis:

• Heart block
• Heart embolism (see Heart symptoms)
• Heart valve damage
• more complications...»

Research More About Endocarditis

Do I have Endocarditis?

• Endocarditis: Introduction
• Endocarditis: Diagnostic Testing to confirm diagnosis
• Home Diagnostic Testing
• Alternative diagnoses and misdiagnosis for Endocarditis
• Failure to Diagnose Endocarditis
• Hidden Causes of Endocarditis
• Treatments for Endocarditis
• More about Endocarditis

Endocarditis: Medical Mistakes

• Hypertension -- Health Mistakes
• Cholesterol -- Health Mistakes
• Obesity -- Health Mistakes
• Diabetes -- Health Mistakes
• Metabolic Syndrome -- Health Mistakes
• more mistakes...»

Endocarditis: Undiagnosed Conditions

Diseases that may be commonly undiagnosed in related medical areas:

• Chronic Major Diseases that are commonly Undiagnosed:
  • High Cholesterol -- Undiagnosed
  • Heart Disease -- Undiagnosed
  • Cancer -- Undiagnosed
  • Depression -- Undiagnosed
  • Type 2 Diabetes -- Undiagnosed
  • Type 1 Diabetes -- Undiagnosed
  • Hypertension -- Undiagnosed
  • Hemochromatosis -- Undiagnosed
  • Metabolic Syndrome -- Undiagnosed
• more undiagnosed conditions...»

Home Diagnostic Testing

Home medical tests related to Endocarditis:

• High Blood Pressure: Home Testing
  • Home Blood Pressure Hypertension Tests
  • Home Blood Pressure Monitors
  • Home Heart Tests
• Heart Health: Home Testing:
  • Heart Rate Monitors
  • Irregular Heartbeat Detection
  • Heart Electrocardiogram (ECG)
  • Home Blood Pressure Testing
  • Home Cholesterol Testing
• more home tests...»

Wrongly Diagnosed with Endocarditis?

The list of other diseases or medical conditions that may be on the differential diagnosis list of alternative diagnoses for Endocarditis includes:

• Acute rheumatic fever
• Arthritis
• Gout
• Henoch-Schönlein purpura
• Infectious arthritis
• more diagnoses...»

See the full list of 9 alternative diagnoses for Endocarditis

Endocarditis: Research Doctors & Specialists

• Cholesterol Specialists:
  • Clinical Lipidology (Cholesterol/Triglycerides)
  • Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism
• Cardiac (Heart) Specialists:
  • Cardiology (Heart specialists)
  • Pediatric Cardiology (Child Heart Specialists)
  • Cardiothoracic Surgery
  • Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology
  • Interventional Cardiology
• more specialists...»

Research all specialists including ratings, affiliations, and sanctions.

More about symptoms of Endocarditis:

More information about symptoms of Endocarditis and related conditions:

• Other diseases with similar symptoms and common misdiagnoses
• Tests to determine if these are the symptoms of Endocarditis
• Symptoms that may be caused by complications of Endocarditis
• Underlying causes of Endocarditis
• Risk factors for Endocarditis

Other Possible Causes of these Symptoms

Click on any of the symptoms below to see a full list of other causes including diseases, medical conditions, toxins, drug interactions, or drug side effect causes of that symptom.

• Aches and pains - see all causes of Aches
• Chills - see all causes of Chills
• Fever - see all causes of Fever
• Heart block - see all causes of Heart block
• Heart embolism - see all causes of Heart symptoms
• Heart murmur - see all causes of Additional Heart Sounds
• High fever - see all causes of High fever
• Irregular heartbeat - see all causes of Irregular heartbeat
• Night sweats - see all causes of Night sweats
• Non-specific symptoms - see all causes of Vague symptoms
• Rapid heartbeat - see all causes of Rapid heartbeat
• Shortness of breath - see all causes of Shortness of breath
• Tiredness - see all causes of Tiredness
• Weakness - see all causes of Weakness

Medical Books Online about Endocarditis

Medical Books Excerpts Excerpts of published medical book chapters related to Endocarditis are available from published medical books for more detailed information about Endocarditis.

Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Related videos for Endocarditis

Patient Surveys for Endocarditis

• Patient Profile Survey
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• Survey about the symptoms of your Endocarditis
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Symptoms of Endocarditis: Online Medical Books

16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE! Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration, for more information about the symptoms of Endocarditis.

Myocarditis: Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Myocarditis usually causes nonspecific symptoms — such as fatigue, dyspnea, palpitations, and fever — that reflect the accompanying systemic infection. Occasionally, it may produce mild, continuous pressure or soreness in the chest (unlike the recurring, stress-related pain of angina pectoris). Although myocarditis is usually self-limiting, it may induce myofibril degeneration that results in right- and left-sided heart failure, with cardiomegaly, jugular vein distention, dyspnea, persistent fever with resting or exertional tachycardia disproportionate to the degree of fever, and supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias. Sometimes myocarditis recurs or produces chronic valvulitis (when it results from rheumatic fever), cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, and thromboembolism.

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005

Pericarditis: Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Acute pericarditis typically produces a sharp and often sudden pain that usually starts over the sternum and radiates to the neck, shoulders, back, and arms. However, unlike the pain of MI, pericardial pain is often pleuritic, increasing with deep inspiration and decreasing when the patient sits up and leans forward, pulling the heart away from the diaphragmatic pleurae of the lungs.

Pericardial effusion, the major complication of acute pericarditis, may produce effects of heart failure (such as dyspnea, orthopnea, and tachycardia), ill-defined substernal chest pain, and a feeling of fullness in the chest. (See Patterns of cardiac pain.)

Alert  If the fluid accumulates rapidly, cardiac tamponade may occur, resulting in pallor, clammy skin, hypotension, pulsus paradoxus (a decrease in systolic blood pressure of 15 mm Hg or more during slow inspiration), jugular vein distention and, eventually, cardiovascular collapse and death.

Chronic constrictive pericarditis causes a gradual increase in systemic venous pressure and produces symptoms similar to those of chronic right-sided heart failure (fluid retention, ascites, and hepatomegaly).

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005

Endocarditis: Signs and Symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

Malaise, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, anorexia, arthralgia, night sweats, chills, valvular insufficiency, intermittent fever, loud murmur

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005

Myocarditis: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

Myocarditis usually causes nonspecific symptoms — such as fatigue, dyspnea, palpitations, and fever — that reflect the accompanying systemic infection. Occasionally, it may produce mild, continuous pressure or soreness in the chest (unlike the recurring, stress-related pain of angina pectoris).

Although myocarditis is usually self-limiting, it may induce myofibril degeneration that results in right- and left-sided heart failure, with cardiomegaly, neck vein distention, dyspnea, persistent fever with resting or exertional tachycardia disproportionate to the degree of fever, and supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias.

Sometimes myocarditis recurs or produces chronic valvulitis (when it results from rheumatic fever), cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias, and thromboembolism.

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003

Pericarditis: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

Clinical features vary in the acute and chronic forms.

Acute pericarditis

In acute pericarditis, a sharp and commonly sudden pain usually starts over the sternum and radiates to the neck, shoulders, back, and arms. However, unlike the pain of an MI, pericardial pain is often pleuritic, increasing with deep inspiration and decreasing when the patient sits up and leans forward, pulling the heart away from the diaphragmatic pleurae of the lungs.

Pericardial effusion, the major complication of acute pericarditis, may produce the effects of heart failure — such as dyspnea, orthopnea, and tachycardia — as well as ill-defined substernal chest pain and a feeling of fullness in the chest.

If the fluid accumulates rapidly, cardiac tamponade may occur, resulting in pallor, clammy skin, hypotension, paradoxical pulse (a decrease in systolic blood pressure equal to or greater than 10 mm Hg during slow inspiration), jugular vein distention and, eventually, cardiovascular collapse and death.

Chronic pericarditis

Chronic constrictive pericarditis causes a gradual increase in systemic venous pressure and produces symptoms similar to those of chronic right-sided heart failure (fluid retention, ascites, hepatomegaly).

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003

Endocarditis: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

Early clinical features of endocarditis are usually nonspecific and include malaise, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, anorexia, arthralgia, night sweats, chills, valvular insufficiency and, in 90% of patients, an intermittent fever that may recur for weeks. A more acute onset is associated with highly pathogenic organisms such as S. aureus.

Endocarditis commonly causes a loud, regurgitant murmur that’s typical of the underlying heart lesion. A suddenly changing murmur or the discovery of a new murmur in the presence of fever is a classic physical sign of endocarditis.

In about 30% of patients, embolization from vegetating lesions or diseased valvular tissue may produce the following features of splenic, renal, cerebral, or pulmonary infarction or peripheral vascular occlusion:

❑ splenic infarction: pain in the left upper quadrant, radiating to the left shoulder; abdominal rigidity

❑  renal infarction: hematuria, pyuria, flank pain, decreased urine output

❑ cerebral infarction: hemiparesis, aphasia, or other neurologic deficits

❑ pulmonary infarction (most common in right-sided endocarditis, which usually occurs in I.V. drug abusers and after cardiac surgery): cough, pleuritic pain, pleural friction rub, dyspnea, hemoptysis

❑ peripheral vascular occlusion: numbness and tingling in an arm or a leg, finger, or toe or signs of impending peripheral gangrene.

Other signs include splenomegaly; petechiae of the skin (especially common on the upper anterior trunk) and the buccal, pharyngeal, or conjunctival mucosa; and splinter hemorrhages under the nails. Rarely, endocarditis produces Osler’s nodes (tender, raised subcutaneous lesions on the fingers or toes), Roth’s spots (hemorrhagic areas with white centers on the retina), and Janeway’s lesions (purplish macules on the palms or soles).

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003

Endocarditis: Endocarditis - signs & symptoms
(The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult)

The Modified Duke Criteria define diagnostic categories (definite endocarditis, possible endocarditis, and rejected cases) based on combinations of major and minor criteria.

• Major criteria: Pathologically documented IE or organism specific high-grade bacteremia or fungemia plus definitive echocardiographic data.
• Minor criteria: Predisposing heart disease, fever, vascular/immunologic phenomena, or microbiologic evidence not within major criteria.
  • Definitive endocarditis requires 2 major, or 1 major plus 3 minor, or 5 minor criteria.
  • Several studies have confirmed the high sensitivity and specificity of these criteria.

» READ BOOK EXCERPT ONLINE »

Source: The 5-Minute Pediatric Consult, 2008

Endocarditis as a Cause of Symptoms or Medical Conditions

When considering symptoms of Endocarditis, it is also important to consider Endocarditis as a possible cause of other medical conditions. The Disease Database lists the following medical conditions that Endocarditis may cause:

• Aneurysms
• Aortic valve incompetence
• Aseptic necrosis of bone
• Atrial fibrillation
• Atrioventricular node conduction block
• Cachexia
• Café au lait spots
• Cardiac failure, low output
• Cardiac valve disease
• Cerebrovascular accident
• Digital clubbing
• Embolism
• Glomerulonephritis
• Haematuria
• Intracranial abscess / granuloma
• Intraspinal abscess / granuloma
• Janeway spots
• Mitral valve incompetence
• Mitral valve stenosis
• Myalgia
• Osler's nodes
• Papilloedema
• Pericarditis
• Purpura
• Pyrexia of unknown origin
• Reactive arthropathy
• Roth spots
• Splenic infarction
• Splenomegaly
• Splinter haemorrhages
• VDRL positive

Endocarditis as a symptom:

For a more detailed analysis of Endocarditis as a symptom, including causes, drug side effect causes, and drug interaction causes, please see our Symptom Center information for Endocarditis.

Medical articles and books on symptoms:

These general reference articles may be of interest in relation to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:

• Research Alternative Diagnoses for Endocarditis
• More about Endocarditis
• Online Diagnosis
• Self Diagnosis Pitfalls
• Pitfalls of Online Diagnosis
• Symptoms of the Silent Killer Diseases
• Lesser known silent killer diseases
• Books on signs and symptoms

Full list of premium articles on symptoms and diagnosis

About signs and symptoms of Endocarditis:

The symptom information on this page attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of Endocarditis. This signs and symptoms information for Endocarditis has been gathered from various sources, may not be fully accurate, and may not be the full list of Endocarditis signs or Endocarditis symptoms. Furthermore, signs and symptoms of Endocarditis may vary on an individual basis for each patient. Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they are indeed Endocarditis symptoms.