Bartonella quintana as a cause for prosthetic valve endocarditis and post-sternotomy mediastinitis.

An otherwise healthy patient, with minimal clinical, biochemical and peroperative signs of infection, was diagnosed with prosthetic valve endocarditis by 16S PCR. The patient subsequently developed a post-sternotomy mediastinitis and was the only detected pathogen. can cause severe infections in individuals not classically at risk, and may be missed in the routine diagnostic work-up of endocarditis.