Background: Kingella, a gram-negative coccobacillus, causes various invasive pediatric diseases, including life threatening infective endocarditis (IE). Data on pediatric Kingella endocarditis are scarce.
Our aim was to describe the clinical features of pediatric Kingella IE patients and compare them to other causative agents of IE, determining whether they have a unique clinical characteristic.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients, aged 0-18 years, admitted with IE between the years 1994-2018, in a tertiary pediatric center in Israel.
Inclusion criteria was fulfillment of Duke`s criteria for diagnosis of IE. We compared the epidemiologic, clinical, laboratory, imaging and cardiac features of the patients with kingella to streptococcus and staphylococcus aureus IE.
Results: 58 patients were included in the study (48 % males). In 17 the causative pathogen was kingella, 25 had streptococcus and 16 had staphylococcus aureus IE. 7 out of 17 (41%) patients with kingella endocarditis had no known previous heart defect. The mean age of the patients with kingella was younger than the streptococci and staphylococci groups (17±11 months, 106±70, 68±76 respectively, P<0.05). A male predominance was noted (70.6% compared with 40.0%, 37.5% respectively). The Kingella IE patients had higher lymphocyte count (4.31K±3.21, compared with 2.09K±1.36, 2.40K±2.38 respectively, P<0.05)
Conclusions: Kingella IE pediatric patients have some unique features compared to those with S. aureus and streptococci IE. Young healthy children (Kingella IE .
Key Words: Kingella, endocarditis, pediatrics, congenital heart disease.
