How could POCUS be useful in the initial evaluation of a severely ill patient in whom infectious endocarditis is suspected?

I love this question. POCUS is very useful in this patient population, both in diagnosis and management, though data are mostly limited to case reports and case series (López Palmero et al., PMID 41016280). Remember that transthoracic echo (TTE) is not as sensitive for infectious endocarditis as tra...

I would broaden the question to incorporate principles of diagnostic reasoning: how does a given test, in this case, point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), adjust the probability of infective endocarditis (IE) in a severely ill patient?

IE is a difficult diagnosis, and clinicians should be cautious about ...

If you don't have access to a TTE or TEE, you can obtain a basic evaluation of the MV, TV, and AV using POCUS, but would need to make sure to corroborate findings through multiple cardiac views. In the right clinical setting, an irregular thickening of a part of an otherwise normal-appearing valve o...