Severe Pneumococcal Pneumonia Causes Acute Cardiac Toxicity and Subsequent Cardiac Remodeling

Rationale: Up to one-third of patients hospitalized with pneumococcal pneumonia experience major adverse cardiac events (MACE) during or after pneumonia. In mice, Streptococcus pneumoniae can invade the myocardium, induce cardiomyocyte death, and disrupt cardiac function following bacteremia, but it is unknown whether the same occurs in humans with severe pneumonia.Objectives: We sought to determine whether S. pneumoniae can (1) translocate the heart, (2) induce cardiomyocyte death, (3) cause MACE, and (4) induce cardiac scar formation after antibiotic treatment during severe pneumonia using a nonhuman primate (NHP) model.Methods: We examined cardiac tissue from six adult NHPs with severe pneumococcal pneumonia and three uninfected control animals. Three animals were rescued with antibiotics (convalescent animals). Electrocardiographic, echocardiographic, and serum biomarkers of cardiac damage were measured (troponin T, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide, and heart-type fatty acid binding protein). ...