Perforated aneurysms of left side valves during active infective endocarditis complicating hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.

The most frequent site of vegetative lesion in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is anterior mitral leaflet, due to chronic endocardial trauma arising from systolic anterior motion. We describe three cases of serious infective endocarditis complicated lesions (vegetation, aneurysm and perforation) on aortic and mitral valves, in patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In particular, we observed how severe valvular damage and dysfunction, combined with particular hemodynamic conditions, are followed by adverse clinical outcome. We performed transthoracic echocardiogram and transoesophageal echocardiography studies to define morphologic and hemodynamic features of infection, deciding the proper therapy and we planned the echocardiographic follow-up. Copyright 2002 The European Society of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.