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Since Cha1) reported "3 Cases of Bacterial Endocarditis", there was no collective study about bacterial endocarditis in this country. It seemed worth and useful to analyze bacterial endocarditis of which incidence was thought to increase annually. During 10 years from 1965 to 1974, 33 patients were documented, as having bacterial endocarditis at Yonsei Medical Center. A gradual increase in the number of cases has occurred over the ten years. The mean age of patients was 28.4 years, and the over-all male-female ratio showed slight preponderance of male 24 of the 33 patients (72.8%) had the history of underlying heart disease, and among the various predisposing factors the most frequent one was rheumatic heart disease. On physical examination during admission, all patients had high fever (over 38°C), 93.9% of them had heart murmur, 48.5% had hepatomegaly, 39.4 had petechiae and 24.2% had_splenomegaly. Average hemoglobin and hematocrit levels suggested moderate anemia with average white cell count of 12, 018/mm3. Interestingly the WBC was over 14,000/mm´3 in 85% of patients with staphylococcal endocarditis and in only 18% of patients with streptoccal endocarditis. Two thirds of patients demonstrated proteinuria and one thirds microscopic hematuria. Streptococcus viridans was the most common etiologic agent. Abacteremic cases constituted about 24% of the patients. The mitral valve was the most frequent site of involvement. Enterococcal endocarditis had the longest duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis, and staphylococcal endocarditis (Coag. -) the longest duration of hospitalization. 72.8% of patients with bacterial endocarditis recovered long enough for hospital discharge but mortality rate was only 6.1%. The most common complication ,during admission and follow-up period was congestive heart failure. We followed 23 survivors for an average follow-up of 2 years and found 21.7% dead. The most common cause of death was also congestive heart failure and most of the patients with congestive heart failure had aortic valve- involvement.
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