The Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection (ARHAI) was created at the height of the incidence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). This article describes the role of ARHAI in the evaluation of laboratory testing for CDI, a related consultation on the legal requirements for manufacturers of in vitro diagnostic medical devices, a CDI healthcare bun...

BACKGROUND Wide variation among hospitals in the rate of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) after surgery was hypothesized to be related to different prophylactic antibiotic practices. METHODS Between March 2008 and March 2010, 30-day confirmed postoperative CDI rates were prospectively collected for patients undergoing colectomy surgery at 23 hospitals participating in a collaborative qua...

This study was undertaken to evaluate the accuracy, reliability, consistency and biases of the CDI-100 saturation monitor when compared with a blood gas analyzer. The advantage of continuous in-line monitoring is that the perfusionist has continuous updates as to the patient's changing physiologic state. During this study, if the sample readout of the CDI-100 was off by greater than 10% from th...

BACKGROUND Well-known risk factors for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) are exposure to antibiotics and gastric acid suppressants. Recent studies have provided some evidence of an association between hypovitaminosis D and the risk of CDI. Therefore, this meta-analysis aimed to pool all the existing evidence to investigate the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) and CDI. MET...

OBJECTIVE Hospital- and population-based studies demonstrate an increasing incidence of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in adults and children; although pediatric CDI outcomes are incompletely understood. We analysed United States National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) data to study CDI in hospitalized children. METHODS NHDS data for 2005-2009 (demographics, diagnoses and discharge s...

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) represents one of the most common healthcare-associated infections. Due to increasing numbers of recurrences and therapy failures, CDI has become a major disease burden. Studies have shown that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can both be a safe and highly efficacious therapy for patients with therapy-refractory CDI. However, patients undergoing solid...

BACKGROUND The incidence and severity of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) have increased over the past decade, especially among hospitalized patients. In this study, we determined the value of published criteria for severe CDI in predicting 3 month mortality, as well as the utility of fecal lactoferrin as a biomarker for severe CDI. METHODS Pilot Year 1 of IRB approved (HSR-IRB# 13630) p...

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is frequently diagnosed in recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). We characterized early-transplant CDI and its associations, and analyzed serially-collected feces to determine intestinal carriage of toxigenic C. difficile. Fecal specimens were collected longitudinally from 94 patients during allo-HSCT hospitalization,...

BACKGROUND The incidence of C difficile infection (CDI) has risen among children; however, optimal management of CDI within a diverse pediatric population remains unclear. Although adult guidelines recommend oral vancomycin for treatment of second recurrence or severe CDI, dedicated pediatric data to support pediatric specific management guidelines are lacking. Our objective was to describe cur...

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), namely ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), have worse outcomes with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), including increased readmissions, colectomy, and death. Oral vancomycin is recommended for the treatment of severe CDI, while metronidazole is the standard of care for nonsevere infection. We aimed to assess treatment outcomes o...