Task Force Members; ESC Committee for Practice Guidelines (CPG); Document Reviewers. Guidelines on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infective endocarditis executive summary; the task force on infective endocarditis of the European society of cardiology

If untreated, Infective Endocarditis (IE) is a fatal disease. Major diagnostic (first of all echocardiography) and therapeutic progress (mainly surgery during active IE) have contributed to some prognostic improvement during the last decades. If the diagnosis is delayed or appropriate therapeutic measures postponed, mortality is still high. In this respect, it is of utmost importance that (a) IE is considered early in every patient with fever or septicaemia and cardiac murmurs; (b) echocardiography is applied without delay in suspected IE; (c), cardiologists, microbiologists and cardiac surgeons cooperate closely if IE is suspected or definite.