The disease at Hospital Clínic

• Number of cases per year  

Figures range from 70-90 cases per year. This includes infective endocarditis in natural (native) valves, artificial (prosthetic) valves and intracardiac devices (pacemakers, defibrillators).  

• Procedures in which the HCB is a pioneer or an expert

The Infective Endocarditis Unit at Hospital Clínic was one of the world’s first multidisciplinary teams established to improve management of this disease. It has been a national and international pioneer, and has served as an example for other hospitals that have also set up their own endocarditis team. Nowadays, the creation of these multidisciplinary teams is recommended in all clinical practice guidelines. The endocarditis team should consist of infectious disease specialists, cardiologists, heart and vascular surgeons, microbiologists, cardiac and body imaging specialists and experts in nuclear medicine. Other specialisms that may contribute, depending on the part of the body affected, include neurology, pathological anatomy, intensive care and anaesthesia.

• Lines of research

Hospital Clínic currently has active lines of research aimed at:  

-    Better understanding the disease and some microbes’ mechanisms of digestive entry.  

-    Introducing improvements in microbiological diagnostics, such as molecular biology techniques to identify the micro-organism involved in intracardiac device or heart valve infections.  

-    Developing the nuclear medicine imaging (PET/CT) strategy.  

-    Identifying patients who are at risk, or who require transfer from centres without heart surgery departments to leading centres, and association with other diseases.  

-    Finding improvements in antibiotic treatment combinations for different micro-organisms in the clinical setting, or in the experimental endocarditis laboratory.  

-    Simplifying oral and at-home treatment.

-    Optimising surgical indication strategies and the effect on the patient’s quality of life following heart surgery.   All these lines of research are carried out at the Working Group on Cardiovascular Infections

- Experimental Endocarditis (Area 1.3 of IDIBAPS).  

• Current research projects

The Endocarditis and Cardiovascular Infection Unit at Hospital Clínic has active national and international competitive projects in collaboration with other international and Spanish centres.

• Involvement in European working groups/Presence in technical committees of Health Departments and Scientific Societies

The members of the endocarditis team at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona are members or heads of Boards of Directors of National and International Societies of Cardiovascular Infections or Infectious Diseases or Cardiac Surgery (SEICAV, SEIMC, ESCMID, SEC, SECTCV, ESC, EACTS, ISCVID).