Infectious endocarditis caused by Bartonella henselae associated with infected pets: two case reports

Abstract

Background Blood culture-negative infective endocarditis is a potentially severe disease that can be associated with infectious agents such as Bartonella spp., Coxiella burnetti, Tropheryma whipplei, and some fungi. Case presentation Reported here are two cases of blood culture-negative infective endocarditis in patients with severe aortic and mitral regurgitation in Brazil; the first case is a 47-year-old white man and the second is a 62-year-old white woman. Bartonella henselae deoxyribonucleic acid was detectable in the blood samples and cardiac valve with vegetation paraffin-fixed tissue samples. Additionally, an investigation was carried out on patients’ pets, within the context of One Health, and serum samples collected from cats and dogs were reactive by indirect immunofluorescence assay. Conclusions Even though the frequency of bartonellosis in Brazil is unknown, physicians should be aware of the possibility of blood culture-negative infective endocarditis caused by Bartonella, particularly in patients with weight loss, kidney changes, and epidemiological history for domestic animals.

A comparison of Bartonella henselae infection in immunocompetent and immunocompromised mice

“…However, one case study found vegetation of the aortic valve and an abscess near the mitral valve interfering with its function. Histopathological examination revealed infiltrates of mononuclear cells and macrophages, vascular neoformation, and fibrosis [ 43 ]. These findings are more advanced but still correlate to the findings in the mouse heart tissues.…”

Canine Bacterial Endocarditis: A Text Mining and Topics Modeling Analysis as an Approach for a Systematic Review

“…The topic with the highest number of published papers on BE was related to causative agents (Topic 4). The papers included within this topic revealed Bartonella spp., Pasteurella, and Erysipelothrix tonsillarum , examples of the most indagate causative agents [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ]. The others most common causative agents are, firstly, Staphylococcal species (including aureus, intermedius, coagulase-positive, and coagulase-negative), followed by Streptococcus species (such as canis, bovis, and beta-hemolytic), and Escherichia coli .…”

“…The following most important topics are “Case reports on endocarditis “(Topic 2) and “Outcomes and biomarkers” (Topic 5), and are correlated. It is noteworthy that the majority of the papers relating to IE in dogs are case reports [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ]. The last topic in order of importance was “Infective endocarditis and bacterial isolation” (Topic 1), probably due to the lower interest in bacterial isolation compared with clinical findings in dogs.…”