Difficulty: Medium
Average Score: 64%
Full-length
A client is admitted with infective endocarditis (IE). Which finding would alert the nurse to a complication of this condition?
Correct answer
B
Rationale
Large, soft, rapidly developing vegetations attach to the heart valves. They have a tendency to break off, causing emboli and leaving ulcerations on the valve leaflets. These emboli produce findings of cardiac murmur, fever, anorexia, malaise and neurologic sequelae of emboli.