Tricuspid Valve Endocarditis due to Staphylococcus aureus

We studied 53 episodes (51 patients) of tricuspid valvular endocarditis caused by Staphylococcus aureus in a predominantly addicted population and correlated two-dimensional echocardiographic findings with clinical outcome. Thirty-eight episodes with (vs 15 episodes without) tricuspid vegetations on the two-dimensional echocardiogram were significantly associated with (1) longer duration of fever on therapy (mean of 12.3 days vs 6.8 days, respectively; p< 0.005); and (2) higher frequency of increased right ventricular end-diastolic (RVED) dimension (25 of 38 cases [66 percent] vs two of 15 cases [13 percent], respectively; p