With subacute endocarditis, bacteria home in on already-damaged heart valves. That's why the doctor suggested your son might have had rheumatic fever.

Native-valve infective endocarditis is uncommon, with an incidence of approximately 2 to 10 cases per 100,000 person-years. 1,2 The presumed initiating event is injury to the valvular endothelium ...

The material for this report consists of 15 patients with subacute bacterial endocarditis caused by alpha-hemolytic streptococcus who were treated at the Boston City Hospital during 1944 and 1945 ...