Guidelines enforcement and clinical outcome

This is an interesting and complex clinical case regarding a man admitted to our observation for fever of unknown origin and with a final diagnosis of Acute Infectious Endocarditis. One point of interest of this report is that the patient did not receive an immediate diagnosis despite suggestive medical history, clinical presentation and clinical course, as consequence of current guidelines non-application. Notably, the patient developed many complications of IE, probably due to tardive diagnosis. In conclusion, this episode still confirm that a full knowledge and implementation of current Evidence Based Guidelines may indicate optimal strategies for rapid identification of IE, early treatment initiation, reduction of cardiac and extracardiac complications, and improvement of patients’ prognosis.