Am I at risk of infective endocarditis?

Information for the public

Only some heart conditions put you at an increased risk of developing infective endocarditis. These include:

some types of disease affecting the heart valves
a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in which the muscle wall of the heart becomes thickened
having had infective endocarditis before
some types of heart problem present from birth that affect the structure of the heart, even if you have had an operation to correct the problem (but if you have a condition called an isolated atrial septal defect, a repaired ventricular septal defect or a repaired patent ductus arteriosus, you are not at increased risk of infective endocarditis)
having a replacement heart valve.