A case of native valve endocarditis caused by Aspergillus fumigatus / 대한내과학회지

ABSTRACT

Fungal endocarditis is a rare but poor-prognostic disease. It typically occurs in patients with several predisposing factors such as open heart surgery, long term venous catheterization, antibiotic therapy, intravenous drug abuse, hematologic malignancy and AIDS. We report a case of native endocarditis caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, which has not been reported as a causative organism of native valve endocarditis in Korea. A 47 year-old female patients without significant past medical history except pulmonary tuberculosis was admitted because of headache and neck pain. After admission, she developed high feve, new cardiac murmur and signs of multiple systemic embolization. Echocardiography revealed large mobile vegetations. Emergent mitral valve replacement was performed and Aspergillus fumigatus was isolated from the resected vegetation. Despite postoperative amphotericin B therapy, she died of subarachnoidal hemorrhage.