Endocardium

Looks like

The thin, glossy lining of the heart's chambers and valves, continuous with the lining of the blood vessels.

What it does

Gives blood a smooth surface to flow over so it does not clot on the heart's inner wall.

Keeping it well

Bacteria in the blood can settle on it, mostly on damaged or artificial valves: endocarditis. Weeks of fever with night sweats in someone with valve disease, a replacement valve or who injects drugs need blood cultures, not antibiotics alone.

Related conditions

• 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DiGeorge)
• Aortic stenosis
• Atrial flutter
• Cardiomyopathy (dilated, restrictive, arrhythmogenic)
• Chagas disease
• Congenital heart defects
• Coronary artery disease
• Diphtheria
• Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
• Eating disorders
• Extra heartbeats (ectopics and palpitations)
• Fainting (syncope)
• Friedreich's ataxia
• Heart failure
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
• Hypothermia & frostbite
• Infective endocarditis
• Kawasaki disease
• Long QT syndrome
• Metabolic syndrome
• Myocarditis
• Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
• Panic disorder
• Pericardial effusion & tamponade
• Pericarditis
• Peripheral artery disease
• Phaeochromocytoma & hyperaldosteronism
• Pre-eclampsia
• Raynaud's phenomenon
• Sepsis
• Shock (circulatory failure)
• Sudden cardiac arrest
• Sudden infant death syndrome
• Supraventricular tachycardia
• Takotsubo (stress) cardiomyopathy
• Tuberous sclerosis complex
• Vasculitis (GCA & others)
• Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome