Incidence and mortality of infective endocarditis in the last decade: a single center study

Background Infective endocarditis (IE) is a significant disease characterized by high mortality and complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence/100 000 inhabitants and the in-hospital mortality/100 000 inhabitants of IE during the last 10 years in the province of Ravenna. Methods and results We reviewed the public hospitals discharge database from January 2010 to December 2020 using the international classification of disease codification (ICD-9) for IE. We used the Italian national statistical institute (ISTAT) archive to estimate the number of Ravenna inhabitants/year. In 10 years, we identified a total of 407 patients with diagnosis of IE. The incidence of IE increased significantly from 6.29 cases/100 000 inhabitants in 2010 to 19.58 cases/100 000 inhabitants in 2020 (P < 0.001). Also, the in-hospital mortality from IE increased over the same number of years, from 1.8 deaths/100 000 inhabitants in 2010 to 4.4 deaths/100 000 inhabitants in 2020 (P < 0.001). The mortality rate (%) of IE over the years did not increase (P = 0.565). Also, over the years there was no difference in the site of infection (P = 0.372), irrespective of the valve localization or type, native valve (P = 0.347) or prosthetic valve (P = 0.145). On logistic regression analysis, age was the only predictor of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 1.045, 95% confidence interval: 1.015; 1.075, P = 0.003) Conclusions Ravenna-based data on IE showed increased disease incidence but unchanged mortality rate over 10 years of follow-up. Age remains the sole predictor of population-based mortality, irrespective of the nature of the valve, native or substitute, and the organism detected on microbiology.