Endocarditis

Your healthcare provider will diagnose bacterial endocarditis after:

• Confirming that you have symptoms of endocarditis.
• Getting the results of a physical examination.
• Getting diagnostic test results.

What tests will be done to diagnose endocarditis?

Diagnostic tests for endocarditis include:

• Blood cultures that show bacteria or microorganisms that healthcare providers often see with endocarditis. Blood cultures — blood tests taken over time — allow a laboratory to isolate the specific bacteria that are causing your infection. To secure a diagnosis, the lab must take blood cultures before you start taking antibiotics.
• Complete blood count, which can tell your provider if you have an unusually high number of white blood cells. This can mean you may have an infection.
• Blood tests for substances like C-reactive protein can show you have inflammation.
• Echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart), which may show growths (vegetations on your valve), abscesses (holes), new regurgitation (leaking) or stenosis (narrowing), or an artificial heart valve that has begun to pull away from your heart tissue. Sometimes providers insert an ultrasound probe into your esophagus or “food pipe” (transesophageal echo) to get a closer, more detailed look at your heart.
• Checking heart valve tissue to find out which kind of microbe you have.
• Positron emission tomography (PET) or nuclear medicine scans to create images using radioactive material that can show an infection’s location.