Infective endocarditis caused by Chaetomium globosum

Chaetomium globosum is a dematiaceous, filamentous fungus belonging to the large genus saprobic as-comycetes and is rarely involved in human infection. We present the case of a 25-year-old man undergo-ing tricuspid valve replacement due to recurrent prosthetic ring endocarditis. Initially, it was considered culture-negative endocarditis; however, the diagnosis of Chaetomium globosum could only be provided by DNA isolation of the mold isolate grown in culture and the valve tissue samples taken from the pa-tient. This report describes the first documented tricuspid endocarditis caused by Chaetomium species and discusses the importance of molecular tools to enhance the diagnostic process in culture-negative endocarditis, especially for fastidious and nonculturable microorganisms. (c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This case report describes the first documented tricuspid endocarditis caused by Chaetomium species and emphasizes the importance of molecular tools in the diagnosis of culture-negative endocarditis.