Acute aortic regurgitation (AAR) due to infective endocarditis (IE) is a serious disease and usually requires surgical treatment. Our study aims to compare the clinical, echocardiographic, and microbiological characteristics as well as in-hospital outcome of patients with AAR according to the severity of heart failure (HF) and to evaluate predictors of in-hospital mortality in a tertiary centre. In a prospective analysis, we compared patients with NYHA functional class I-II HF (G1) vs. functional class III-IV HF (G2). From 06/92 to 07/16, 439 patients with IE were hospitalized; 86 presented AAR: (G1, 39: 45.4% y G2, 47: 54.7%). The G1 had higher prosthetic IE (43.6% vs. 17%, p 0.01). All G2 patients had dyspnoea vs. 30.8% of the G1 (p < 0.0001). There were no differences in clinical, echocardiographic and microbiological characteristics. Surgical treatment was indicated mainly due to infection extension or valvular dysfunction in G1 and HF in G2. In-hospital mortality was 15.4% vs. 27.7% (G1 and G2 respectively p NS). In multivariate analysis, health care-associated acquisition (p 0.001), negative blood cultures (p 0.004), and functional class III-IV HF (p 0.039) were in-hospital mortality predictors. One-fifth of the patients with EI had AAR. Half of them had severe HF which needed emergency surgery and the remaining needed surgery for extension of the infection and / or valvular dysfunction. Both groups remain to have high surgical and in-hospital mortality. Health care-associated acquisition, negative blood cultures and advanced HF were predictors of in-hospital mortality.
Keywords: acute aortic regurgitation; in-hospital mortality predictors; infective endocarditis.