Infection by coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is the most common cause of acute endocarditis, a destructive and progressive condition of heart valves. Here, Peter Panizzi and his colleagues have developed a targeted, noninvasive fluorescence or positron emission technology imaging strategy that uses an engineered analog of prothrombin that can detect S. aureus in vivo in the endocarditic vegetations that form as a result of bacterial colonization.
- Peter Panizzi
- Matthias Nahrendorf
- Ralph Weissleder
