Advantages and Limitations of Direct PCR Amplification of Bacterial 16S-rDNA from Resected Heart Tissue or Swabs Followed by Direct Sequencing for Diagnosing Infective Endocarditis: A Retrospective Analysis in the Routine Clinical Setting

Table 1

Distribution of types of valves infected within the study group.

	Type of valve infected ()
	Native	Prosthetic	Cardiac devices
Aortic	37	28
Mitral	34	5
Tricuspidal	2	1
			6
(%)	73 (64.6)	34 (30.1)	6 (5.3)
104 patients; F/M ratio 1 : 3; mean age 66.0 ± 12.6 years

Heart valves of patients with two infected heart valves are counted separately.