Concurrent diagnosis of infective endocarditis and acute rheumatic fever: A case report

Abstract Rheumatic heart disease has been classically considered as a risk factor for infective endocarditis (IE). Although valvulitis is frequently present in patients with acute rheumatic fever (ARF), the established valve disease after initial episode of ARF is usually considered as a predisposing factor for IE. We hereby present a biopsy-proven case of IE co-diagnosed with the first episode of ARF. Learning objective: Infective endocarditis and acute rheumatic fever are both diagnosed with clinical criteria. When both of these conditions are possible in a single case, however, the diagnosis might be challenging. We highlight this issue in the presented case.>