Furthermore, the role of cerebral MRI and magnetic resonance angiography in the diagnosis and manage- ment of IE has been better defined in several studies. In addi- tion, several risk stratification models for quantifying morbidity and mortality in IE patients overall and particularly in those undergoing valve surgeries have been developed and validated. Finally, daptomycin has been evaluated in the treatment of S aureus bacteremia and IE in a randomized, controlled trial.13 Several rigorously conducted observational studies11,14 16 and a randomized, controlled trial17 have examined the impact and timing of valve surgery in IE management. In addition, updated international management guidelines have been published.18,19 The present AHA IE Writing Committee conducted com- prehensive and focused reviews of the literature published between January 2005 and October 2013 to update the previous version of the guidelines. Literature searches of the PubMed/ MEDLINE databases were undertaken to identify pertinent articles. Searches were limited to the English language. The major search terms included endocarditis, infective endocardi- tis, infectious endocarditis, intracardiac, valvular, mural, infec- tion, diagnosis, bacteremia, case definition, epidemiology, risks, demographics, injection drug use, echocardiography, microbiology, culture-negative, therapy, antibiotic, antifungal, antimicrobial, antimicrobial resistance, adverse drug effects, drug monitoring, outcome, meta-analysis, complications, abscess, heart failure, embolic events, stroke, conduction abnormalities, survival, pathogens, organisms, treatment, sur- gery, indications, valve replacement, valve repair, ambulatory care trials, and prevention. In addition, the present statement includes a new section, Surgical Therapy. 