Case 1-1996: A 69-Year-Old Woman with Severe, Persistent Congestive Heart Failure after Treatment for Bacteremia

Presentation of Case A 69-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of severe, persistent congestive heart failure after treatment for bacteremia. The patient had been well until several months earlier, when chronic fatigue developed. Three weeks before admission symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection appeared, with cough and weakness. The temperature ranged up to 38.9°C on several occasions. Fifteen days before admission she was taken to another hospital. There was a history of obesity, a calcified aortic valve, and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus; the patient had been admitted to the same hospital eight months earlier because of a blood . . .