Subarachnoid hemorrhage due to septic embolic infarction in infective endocarditis.

During antibiotic therapy, a 56-year-old man with a Streptococcus bovis endocarditis developed an infarction of the right middle cerebral artery (MCA). Thirty hours after stroke onset, cranial computed tomography controls demonstrated a secondary subarachnoid hemorrhage, marked in the cistern of the right MCA. The latent period, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, angiographic and pathologic findings favor the assumption of a pyogenic arterial wall necrosis of the MCA due to a septic embolus. This pathomechanism of intracranial hemorrhage in infective endocarditis should be distinguished from a rupture of a mycotic aneurysm.