INFECTIOUS ENDARTERITIS AS A COMPLICATION OF AORTIC COARCTATION: A CASE REPORT

A 24-year-old man presented with fever, purpuric lesions, acute heart failure, and a previously undocumented cardiac murmur. Blood cultures grew Streptococcus mitis. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed a bicuspid aortic valve with severe regurgitation due to cusp perforation, large vegetations with a peri-aortic abscess, severe mitral regurgitation from perimembranous septal perforation, and infectious endarteritis at the site of native aortic coarctation (peak gradient 80 mmHg). Despite prompt dual intravenous antibiotics and urgent heart-team planning for staged surgery, the patient developed refractory peri-induction cardiovascular collapse and died. This case underscores the diagnostic value of targeted echocardiography and the fulminant course of coarctation-associated endarteritis.