Infective endocarditis in Turkey: changing trends in epidemiology

We read with a great interest the article by Elbey et al. (1) that was published in September issue of The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology 2013; 13: 523-7. In this multicenter study, the authors evaluated the epidemiologic factors that contribute infective endocarditis (IE) along with the clinical and echocardiographic characteristics of the patients. They concluded that the main predisposing factor was rheumatic heart disease, patients were younger in contrast to western countries, staphylococci species were the major pathogens and in-hospital mortality rates were still high.