Endocarditis

(en - do - kar - di’- tis) [evdov, within; napdia, the heart; ltlc,, inflammation]. Inflammation of the endocardium or lining membrane of the heart. The condition may be acute or chronic. Acute endocarditis is either warty or ulcerative, both of these being micro organismal in origin. The most frequent causes of the acute form are rheumatism and the infectious fevers. The disease usually affects the valves of the left side of the heart, and gives rise to a murmur, to fever, dyspnea, and rapid pulse. In the ulcerative form the. symptoms resemble those of pyemia (hectic fever, chills, sweats, embolic proce es). Chronic or sclerotic endocarditis is either a terminal proce following the acute forms, or is a primary affection beginning insidiously. The latter is usually a ociated with general arteriosclerosis, and is due to gout, rheumatism, alcoholism, syphilis, and to other obscure causes. Both the acute and the chronic form give rise to insufficiency or obstruction of the valvular orifice, or to both combined. 259