Mahabadi AA, Mahmoud I, Dykun I, et al. - Researchers investigated if relevant comorbidities stratify patients with and without infective endocarditis (IE) as well as if these may enhance the diagnostic accuracy in addition to the modified Duke criteria, in this single center observational trial prospectively including 261 consecutive patients (aged 60.1 ± 16.1 years, 62.8% men) with suspected IE. Experts evaluated modified Duke criteria and relevant comorbidities as well as clinical features. In receiver operating characteristics, an area under the curve of 0.783 (0.715-0.851) was generated by the combination of modified Duke criteria without transesophageal echocardiography. Only a marginal improvement in the predictive value was conferred by the addition of heart murmur and intensive care therapy. Overall, excellent diagnostic value was conferred by the modified Duke criteria for assessing suspected IE, mainly driven by transesophageal echocardiography.