Validation of VIRSTA and Predicting Risk of Endocarditis Using a Clinical Tool (PREDICT) Scores to Determine the Priority of Echocardiography in Patients with Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia

Juan Sebastián Peinado-Acevedo*, Juan José Hurtado-Guerra, Carolina Hincapié, Juanita Mesa-Abad, José Roberto Uribe-Delgado, Santiago Giraldo-Ramírez, Paula A. Lengerke-Diaz, Fabián Jaimes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) secondary to Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) has high morbidity and mortality. The systematic use of echocardiography in SAB is controversial. We aimed to validate VIRSTA and Predicting Risk of Endocarditis Using a Clinical Tool (PREDICT) scores for predicting the risk of IE in Colombian patients with SAB and, consequently, to determine the need for echocardiography.

Methods: Cohort of patients hospitalized with SAB in 2 high complexity institutions in Medellin, Colombia, between 2012 and 2018. The diagnosis of IE was established based on the modified Duke criteria. The VIRSTA and PREDICT scores were calculated from the clinical records, and their operational performance was calculated.

Results: The final analysis included 922 patients, 62 (6.7%) of whom were diagnosed with IE. The frequency of IE in patients with a negative VIRSTA scale was 0.44% (2/454). The frequency of IE in patients with a negative PREDICT scale on day 5 was 4.8% (30/622). The sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) of the VIRSTA scale was 96.7% and 99.5%, respectively. For the PREDICT scale on day 5, the sensitivity and NPV were 51.6% and 95.1%, respectively. The discrimination, given by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, was 0.86 for VIRSTA and 0.64 for PREDICT.

Conclusions: In patients with negative VIRSTA, screening echocardiography may be unnecessary because of the low frequency of IE. In PREDICT-negative patients, despite the low frequency of IE, it is not safe to omit echocardiography.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)E1151-E1157
Number of pages7
JournalClinical Infectious Diseases
Volume73
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1-Sept-2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • bacteremia
  • echocardiography
  • endocarditis
  • staphylococcal Infections
  • Staphylococcus aureus

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