Aortic Periannular Abscess Missed by Transthoracic Echocardiography: A Case Report

Wenjuan He; Yudong Peng; Yan Yi; Han Hu; Jinzhi Lu; Keming Chen; Qingsong Zeng

doi:10.1002/ccr3.70114

Aortic Periannular Abscess Missed by Transthoracic Echocardiography: A Case Report

Clin Case Rep. 2025 Jan 16;13(1):e70114. doi: 10.1002/ccr3.70114. eCollection 2025 Jan.

Authors

Wenjuan He¹, Yudong Peng², Yan Yi², Han Hu³, Jinzhi Lu⁴, Keming Chen¹, Qingsong Zeng¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology The First Affiliated Hospital of Yangtze University Jingzhou China.
² Department of Ultrasound The First Affiliated Hospital of Yangtze University Jingzhou China.
³ Department of Ophthalmology Jingmen Cental Hospital, Jingmen Cental Hospital Affiliated to Jingchu University of Technology Jingmen China.
⁴ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hubei Clinical Medicine Research Center for Individualized Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy The First Affiliated Hospital of Yangtze University Jingzhou China.

Abstract

An aortic periannular abscess (PA) is a critical consequence of infective endocarditis (IE). In our case report, the patient's clinical symptoms were only fever, cough, and shortness of breath. He was then diagnosed with aortic PA, which was overlooked in the initial TTE assessment but later identified through transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). The patient underwent surgery immediately and recovered well. This case underscores the importance of TEE in revealing small, yet critical, intracardiac lesions that may be missed by TTE.

Keywords: aortic periannular abscess; case report; infective endocarditis; small vegetation; transesophageal echocardiography; transthoracic echocardiography.