Infective endocarditis in Western Norway: a 20-year retrospective survey

AbstractBackground: To investigate epidemiological trends of infective endocarditis (IE) in western Norway a retrospective study was performed.Methods: Characteristics of 706 IE admissions from 1996 to 2005 and 2006 to 2015 were analysed and compared using the Chi-square test for categorical variables and the t-test for age. Survival was analysed by multiple Cox regression and reported by the hazard ratio (HR).Results: Mean annual incidence rates increased from 4.6 to 7.4 per 100,000 inhabitants (rate ratio: 1.97, 95% confidence interval: 1.52–2.56, p < .001). Non-viridans streptococci, enterococci and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), were all independently associated with increased mortality. The frequency of IE caused by enterococci increased from 3.7 to 13.0% (p < .001). The proportion of intravenous drug users (IVDU) increased from 16.5 to 23.5% (p = .015) and had increasing aortic valve involvement (p = .023). Prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) constituted 30% of IE cases in both decades with biol...