BACKGROUND Antimicrobial use is thought to suppress the intestinal microbiota, thereby impairing colonization resistance and allowing Clostridium difficile to infect the gut. Additional risk factors such as proton-pump inhibitors may also alter the intestinal microbiota and predispose patients to Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). This comparative metagenomic study investigates the relation...

OBJECTIVES Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) represents a cause of substantial morbidity, particularly for older adults. Although older age is a risk factor for CDI, few studies have specifically focused on clinical outcomes in older adults, particularly the "oldest" old. DESIGN Retrospective review. SETTING University of Michigan Health System. PARTICIPANTS All patients aged 80 and o...

BACKGROUND Lactobacillus plantarum 299v (LP299v) has been used in order to reduce gastrointestinal symptoms during antibiotic exposure. However, it remains controversial whether or not probiotics are effective in the prevention of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) among patients receiving antibiotics. The aim of this study was to analyze the CDI among patients receiving antibiotics and hos...

BACKGROUND Prior studies have demonstrated an increase in Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) incidence in the United States (U.S.) in recent years, but trends among different age groups have not been evaluated. This study describes national CDI incidence by age group over a 10-year period and mortality and hospital length of stay (LOS) among patients with CDI. METHODS This was a retrospect...

BACKGROUND The development of new diagnostics is an important tool in the fight against disease. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) is used to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of tests in the absence of a gold standard. The main field diagnostic for Schistosoma mansoni infection, Kato-Katz (KK), is not very sensitive at low infection intensities. A point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen (C...

BACKGROUND Children are increasingly recognized as being at risk for C. difficile infection (CDI), even without prior exposure to antibiotics or the healthcare environment. We aimed to distinguish risk factors, clinical course, and outcomes between healthcare facility-associated (HA) and community-associated (CA) CDI. METHODS This was a retrospective, observational cohort study conducted at t...

BACKGROUND Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a highly prevalent hospital-associated infection. Although most patients respond well to discontinuation of antibiotics, 20%-30% of patients relapse. To initiate early therapeutic measures, the risk factors for recurrent CDI must be identified, although very few Japanese studies have used standard surveillance definitions to identify these ris...

The incidence and severity of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) have increased dramatically over the past decade. Its treatment, however, has largely remained the same with the exception of oral vancomycin use as a first-line agent in severe disease. From 1999 to 2004, 20,642 deaths were attributed to CDI in the United States, almost 7 times the rate of all other intestinal infections combi...

BACKGROUND Mortality among patients with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is high. Because of high age and multiple underlying diseases, CDI-related mortality is difficult to estimate. We estimated CDI-related mortality in an endemic situation, not influenced by outbreaks and consequently certain patients and C. difficile strains. METHODS Between 2006 and 2009, 13 Dutch hospitals include...