Endocarditis in patients with a permanent pacemaker: A 1-year epidemiological survey on infective endocarditis due to valvular and/or pacemaker infection

To describe characteristics of infective endocarditis (IE) in pacemaker ( PM) recipients, including the annual incidence and exact localization of IE on PM leads, cardiac valves, or both, we prospectively analyzed 45 PM recipients from a group of 559 patients with definite IE who responded to a population-based survey conducted in France in 1999. Thirty-three patients had definite PM-lead IE ( group I), and 12 had valvular IE without evidence of PM involvement (group II). The valvular structure was involved in almost two-thirds of IE cases among PM recipients. Of the 28 patients (62%) with valvular IE, 10 group I patients had tricuspid involvement, and 6 group I patients had left heart-valve involvement. The most frequent causative organisms in groups I and II were staphylococci (82%) and streptococci (50%), respectively. The incidence of age- and sex-standardized IE was 550 cases/million PM recipients per year. The incidence of IE with PM involvement is between that of valvular IE in the general population and prosthetic valve IE.