The Infective Endocarditis (2nd Edition)

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is a continuation of our 2024 Special Issue “The Infective Endocarditis”. 

Cardiovascular infections remain life-threatening diseases with high morbidity and mortality, despite advances in diagnosis and management. The most severe form, infective endocarditis (IE), presents an ever-changing epidemiological scenario: there is a constant increase in the at-risk population due to the exponential growth of the elderly and comorbid population, patients with diverse intracardiac devices (prosthetic valves, cardiac implantable electronic devices, and TAVI), and, in some regions of the world, a dramatic increase in people who inject drugs (PWID). In addition, vascular graft infections and LVAD infections are increasing, and their management is certainly challenging. 

Therefore, improved prevention strategies both in the community and in hospitals are key to avoiding IE. Progress and improved diagnostic performance are expected with new molecular tools, as well as with the optimization of existing imaging techniques (echocardiography, PET-CT, cardiac CT) and the emergence of new modalities (PET-MRI, cardiac MRI). Staphylococcal and enterococcal etiologies will likely remain dominant in a scenario of increased nosocomial contact, although there are still points of uncertainty or potential for improvement in their therapeutic approaches. Antibiotic treatment regimens have changed now that a significant proportion of patients, after an initial IV induction, continue with the ambulatory consolidation phase through OPAT, long-acting or oral antibiotics—strategies whose efficacy and safety will be important to monitor in large prospective cohorts. Surgery, which continues to play an important role in the management of these infections, always needs refinement of its indications and timing. Finally, there is interest in the potential contributions of machine learning and AI to help us improve the management and outcomes of our patients. 

For this Special Issue, we invite you to submit contributions on infective endocarditis and cardiovascular infections, including basic studies on genetic susceptibility, infection mechanisms, translational research in experimental models of streptococcal, enterococcal and staphylococcal endocarditis, clinical studies on epidemiology of all the cardiovascular infections in specific populations such as elderly patients, people with CIED and prosthetic valves—TAVI, and PWID and, finally, novel medical and surgical treatment strategies for endocarditis, vascular graft and LVAD infections.

Prof. Dr. José María Miró
Dr. Guillermo Cuervo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.