Isolated right-sided endocarditis in Hong Kong Chinese.

Thirteen histologically-proven cases of endocarditis confined to the right side of the heart were found in 9406 consecutive autopsies. Eleven cases involved the tricuspid valve and two the atrial endocardium. Nine cases were in males and 4 in females. Only one case showed underlying valvular/endocardial disease. Eight cases were infective, with Staphylococcus aureus being the predominant organism, and 5 non-infective. For the infective cases, intravenous drug abuse was the commonest predisposing factor, and malignancy the commonest association for the non-infective. The commonest overall complication was lung abscess due to septic emboli in the 3 drug addicts, a common association in other reported series. These latter cases are particularly important to recognize, being generally more responsive to treatment than left-sided infective endocarditis.