What is new in the profile of infective endocarditis?

In industrialized countries, after the eradication of rheumatic fever, rheumatic valve diseases progressively disappeared and the proportion of post-rheumatic infective endocarditis (IE) significantly decreased. Intravenous drug use, prosthetic valves, degenerative valve sclerosis, and invasive procedures have become the most important risk factors for IE. These changes also resulted in a decreasing incidence of streptococcal IE which was compensated by in increased incidence of staphylococcal IE. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.