| Abstrakt: |
Subacute bacterial endocarditis is now the most common form of heart disease which can be cured. It is important that the general physician who first sees the patient should not miss the opportunity of making an early diagnosis and effecting a cure. The feasibility and relative economy with which huge doses of penicillin may be administered, and the availability of other antibiotics such as dihydrostreptomycin, aureomycin, chloramphenicol (chloromycetin®) and terramycin afford the theoretical possibility of curing bacteriologically at least 95 per cent of the cases of subacute bacterial endocarditis. Nevertheless, in practice there is a striking disparity between this high percentage of possible bacteriologic cures and the significantly lower percentage of actual clinical recoveries. The purpose of this study was to discover the probable causes for this discrepancy and if possible to utilize the information obtained as a basis for enhancing the incidence of clinical recoveries.Table 1 represents |
