[The importance of the early diagnosis of infectious endocarditis in an aortic prosthesis by transesophageal two-dimensional Doppler echocardiography]. / Importância do diagnóstico precoce de endocardite infecciosa em prótese aórtica pela ecodopplercardiografia bidimensional transesofágica.

A female patient, 21 years old, was submitted to surgical treatment of severe aortic insufficiency. She was doing well until the 9th postoperative day, when she presented sepsis and an embolic cerebrovascular attack. The transesophageal echo-Doppler-cardiogram showed paraprosthetic abscess and vegetations, that were not seen on the transthoracic echo-Doppler-cardiogram performed one day before. We are convinced that the findings on the echocardiogram were very important for the good results obtained by the prompt surgical procedure.