[Native valve infective endocarditis caused by Streptococcus bovis. Efficacy of short-term antibiotic therapy and usefulness of serial echocardiographic evaluation].

We report a case of infective endocarditis on native valve, due to Streptococcus bovis, treated successfully with short time antibiotic therapy (10 days versus minimum suggested treatment of two weeks) by using penicillin G together with streptomycin (six days), followed, by treatment with imipenem (four days) because of allergic reactions. Diagnosis was simpler thanks to Durack's new criteria that include positive echocardiographic findings (valvular vegetations) within major clinical criteria for definite diagnosis of infective endocarditis, different from preceding Von Reyn's criteria which did not provide diagnostic weight for echocardiographic data. Serial echocardiograms have also been useful to evaluate the early response to the treatment and its persistent efficacy in the follow-up.