what is bacterial endocarditis?a bacteremia or septicemia?

Answer 1

Im afraid doc 8 is incorrect in saying that bacteremia and septicemia are synomnous. Quite wrong infact. We had a lecture on infection and types of infection where this was carefully explained. Whats more my girlfriend is a med student and agrees with me.

Bacteremia is the presence of bacteria in the blood, where as septicemia is a systemic disease of the blood, caused by a pathogen and/or a toxin. Subtle difference.

Bacterial endocarditis (endocarditis literally meaning inflammation of the endocardium)is an infection of one of the heart valves, so it would be bacteremia since the infection is in the endocadium.

I do hope this clears things up.

Answer 2

Bacteria boy is correct and doc 8 is incorrect.
Endocarditis is an infection on one of the heart valves - most commonly by a bacterium of some sort.
Bacteremia is the presence of bacteria in the blood stream.
Septicemia is the clinical syndrome that occurs when bacteria or toxins are in the blood stream (low BP, tachycardia, fever, etc.)

The most common scenario is that endocarditis is caused by a bacterium on the heart valve, which then "seeds" the blood stream causing bacteremia. If the level of bacteria into the bloodstream is high, the body starts to attack it releasing inflammatory proteins into the blood stream leading to a sepsis syndrome, or septicemia.

Answer 3

Doc 8 is correct, the first two posters are not.

While bacteremia or sepsis can either lead *to* or result *from* bacterial endocarditis, the term, medically refers to the situation where the leaflets of a heart valve (usually mitral or aortic) become the site for a smoldering bacterial infection that causes "vegetations" or a collection of cellular and bacterial debris, mixed with inflammatory infiltrate and fibrosis. The vegetations are quite friable (crumble-able). Parts of the vegetations can break off and cause a number of problems in the body.

There are some situations that predispose a person to bacterial endocarditis, the most common of which is rheumatic valve disease, which is a (fortunately relatively rare) response of the body to a previous strep infection.

Answer 4

Endocarditis is an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart, the endocardium. The most common structures involved are the heart valves.

Endocarditis can be classified by etiology as either infective or non-infective, depending on whether a microorganism is the source of the problem.

and

Bacteremia (Bacteræmia in British English, also known as blood poisoning or toxemia) is the presence of bacteria in the blood.

and

Sepsis (in Greek Σήψις, putrefaction) is a serious medical condition, resulting from the immune response to a severe infection. Septicemia is sepsis of the bloodstream caused by bacteremia, which is the presence of bacteria in the bloodstream. The term septicemia is also used to refer to sepsis in general.

You could get more information from the 3 links below...

Answer 5

Bacterial endocarditis is a bacteremia Check out the link below

Answer 6

endocarditis involves the heart valves with infection, damage and vegetations. Bacteremia and septocemia are synonyms for bacteria in the blood.