Question: If you have had infectious endocarditis, how do you know when you are completely healed? I would like personal accounts...not medical answers please.
Answer: The best method is echocardiography. Also, one can try MRI and CT scans. Also, improvement in general outlook (exercise tolerance), disappearance (not changing nature) of heart murmurs, which are heard through the stethoscope, is an important indicator. Negative blood culture (disappearance of bacteria from blood) may not be the most reliable indicator if one is on antibiotics. Take care.
