Authors
Pedro Villablanca, Divyanshu Mohananey, Garnet Meier, John E Yap, Sonam Chouksey, Ayokunle T Abegunde
Abstract
Aim: To study trends in the epidemiology, clinical presentation, microbiology and prognosis of non-typhoid Salmonella (NTS) myocarditis.
Methods: We performed a systematic literature search for all reported NTS cases. The search yielded 838 publications. A total of 21 papers were deemed eligible. No language restrictions were enforced. Articles that were not written in English were translated. Pre-specified data such as clinical presentation, electrocardiogram (ECG) changes, transthoracic echocardiographic findings, cardiac magnetic resonance findings, microbiology cultures, Salmonella species, inflammatory markers (erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein), cardiac biomarkers and severity of illness were collected using data extraction sheets. Cases were classified by age into 2 groups; pediatric cases (defined as < 18 years old) and adult cases (defined ≥ 18 years old). The mean age of patients and standard deviations were calculated. The data was analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics (Windows, Version 20.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.) for demographic characteristics, presenting symptoms, microbiology, diagnostic methods, treatment modalities and outcome.
Results: From the selected articles, we identified a total of 24 individual cases with verifiable data. There were 20 males with a male to female ratio of 5:1. The mean age at presentation was 30.8 years (range 1 mo-67 years), 16% of cases were children aged < 18 years. Most patients presented with chest pain, fever, and abdominal pain. The most common ECG finding was ST elevation. Cardiac biomarkers were elevated in around 70% of cases. Salmonella Enteritidis was the most common NTS isolated. Definitive diagnosis was established by blood and stool cultures in most of the cases. The pediatric and adults cases had similar incidence of bacteremia (40% vs 36.8%) while the pediatric group had more stool cultures positive compared to the adult group (100% vs 63.1%). Eighty-three percent of patients received antibiotics and 58% were successfully treated through conservative management. The overall mortality was 24% and 42% of patients required intensive care.
Conclusion: This systematic review of published cases shows that NTS myocarditis occurs predominantly in young adults and carries a poor prognosis.
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