Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Associated with Austrian Syndrome

Austrian syndrome is named in honor of the eminent doctor Robert Austrian, an American doctor specializing in infectious diseases, who described this pathology in 1957 [1]. Austrian syndrome is a clinical entity caused by disseminated Streptococcus pneumoniae infection and is usually characterized by the triad of pneumonia, endocarditis and meningitis. Before the discovery of penicillin, Streptococcus pneumoniae was one of the most common causes of endocarditis, but today it represents less than 1% [2]. Currently it is estimated that there are 0.9-7.8 cases per 10 million people each year who have Austrian Syndrome, with a mortality rate of around 32% [3]. Alcohol abuse is the main risk factor but it appears in only 40% of the patients. Additionally, only 14% of patients do not have any risk factor. The majority of the patients are males and it generally appears in people who are middle aged. It more frequently affects the native valve and in 50% of cases, the aortic valve is injured. [3,4]. Proper antimicrobial treatment and early surgery of endocarditis, both decrease the risk of mortality. We present a case of a patient without predisposing factors who presented this clinical entity with a satisfactory outcome.