Obstructive endocarditis in an immunodeficient infant.

We report the case of 5-week-old male infant who presented as a 'near miss cot death'. He had the immunodeficient syndrome of defective neutrophil mobility and delayed umbilical cord separation. He was shown to have staphylococcal endocarditis with a large vegetation on the mitral valve, and acute obstruction of the mitral valve flow may have accounted for the suddenness of his presentation. Death resulted from overwhelming sepsis with widely disseminated micro-abscesses.