Transthoracic and Transesophageal Echocardiographic Findings in Infective Endocarditis

Transthoracic (TTE) and transesophageal echocardiographic (TEE) findings were compared in 11 patients with infective endocarditis. Two of the patients had double valve (aortic and mitral ) replacements. Severe aortic regurgitation was detected in 9 patients by both methods. While mitral valvular regurgitation was seen by TTE in one of the 2 patients with double valves replacement, mitral valvular and paravalvular regurgitations were seen by TEE in both of these. Only in 3 patients, vegetations having 11 to 18 mm dimensions were detected on aortic cusps by TTE. However, vegetations of 3 to 18 mm size were detected by TEE in 8 patients on aortic cusps and in two patients with double-valve replacement on both prosthetic valves. Hence, TEE is a valuable diagnostic method in the detection of vegetations in infective endocarditis and TEE should be applied in every patient with suspected infective endocarditis.