Research suggests link between intravenous drug use and fatal heart valve infections
An analysis of death certificates from 1999 to 2020 links intravenous drug use to deaths caused by infective endocarditis.
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) - An analysis of death certificates from 1999 to 2020 links intravenous drug use to deaths caused by infective endocarditis.
Endocarditis is a inflammation of the inner lining of the heart.
WVU Medicine’s Dr. Sudarshan Balla, one of the researchers involved in the study, said the analysis revealed a broad trend about deaths from endocarditis over that time period. “Overall, we found that the deaths, only deaths, we only studied deaths, deaths due to this infective endocarditis were on the decline,” Balla said.
Balla said that taking a closer look at the data made things a little more complicated. Balla said while most states showed either a flat rate of deaths from infective endocarditis or a decrease, a few states stood out with an increase in deaths.
“West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and a little bit of, I think, also was Mississippi,” Balla said.
According to the study, deaths in these states were particularly increased among people aged 25 to 44. Balla said many of those who died shared one condition other than the fatal infective endocarditis.
“When we looked at it, it looked like most of these patients who are dying from infective endocarditis did have an additional diagnosis of substance use disorder in their death certificates,” Balla said.
Balla says intravenous drug use in particular is a likely cause of this increase in deadly infections. “When people inject drugs into their veins, bacteria can actually enter the blood stream directly,” He said. “So that’s how the bacteria entering the blood stream can multiply and infect the heart valves.”
Balla said more research is need to totally understand other factors that could contribute to an increase in these infective endocarditis deaths.
Still, he said the link he and his fellow researchers identified between the deaths and substance use disorder could have implications for how infective endocarditis gets treated by doctors.
“A multiple team approach that involves the infectious disease doctors, the heart doctors, the heart surgeons, and behavioral health doctors, providers, to provide comprehensive care to this group of patients,” Balla said.
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