Clostridium difficile is a gram-positive, spore-forming, obligate anaerobic bacillus that was originally isolated from the stool of a healthy neonate in 1935. In high-income countries, C. difficile is the most common cause of infectious diarrhoea in hospitalized patients. The incidence of C. difficile infection in the USA has increased markedly since 2000, with hospitalizations for C. difficile...

BACKGROUND The hypervirulent Clostridium difficile ribotype 027 can be classified into subtypes, but it unknown if these differ in terms of severity of C. difficile infection (CDI). Genomic studies of C. difficile 027 strains have established that they are rich in mobile genetic elements including prophages. This study combined physiological studies, electron microscopy analysis and molecular b...

clostridium difficile has been recognized as the major cause of pseudomembranous colitis.this bacterium produces two toxins(an enterotoxin -cytotoxin and a potent cytotoxin called toxin A and toxin B erespectively).these toxins have implicated in pathogenesis of the disease.however,histopathological effects of their molecular mass less than 100KDa have been essayed.in the persent study,we exami...

Both for epidemiologic studies and for diagnostic testing, there is a need for effective, economical, and readily available selective media for the culture of Clostridium difficile. We have developed a reduced-cost substitute for cycloserine-cefoxitin-fructose agar (CCFA), which is an effective but expensive selective medium for C. difficile. The modified medium, called C. difficile brucella ag...

Aim This study evaluated the frequency of C. difficile and CDAD in the ICU of Shahid Bahonhar Hospital, Kerman, Iran. Background Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is the most important antibiotic associated diarrhea agent in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Based on its toxin producing ability, C .difficile is divided to toxigenic and non-toxigenic strains. Methods A total of 233 diar...

Five well characterised strains of Clostridium difficile of differing virulence and two Escherichia coli strains, a verotoxigenic O157:H7 isolate and a urinary isolate, were examined for cell surface hydrophobicity and charge, and haemagglutinating ability. Phase partition in hexadecane or octan-1-ol was similar for C. difficile and E. coli, as was retention by hydrophobic interaction chromatog...

It is hypothesized that the depletion of microbial members responsible for converting primary bile acids into secondary bile acids reduces resistance to Clostridium difficile colonization. To date, inhibition of C. difficile growth by secondary bile acids has only been shown in vitro. Using targeted bile acid metabolomics, we sought to define the physiologically relevant concentrations of prima...

Clostridium difficile is the largest single cause of hospital-acquired infection in the United States. A major risk factor for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is prior exposure to antibiotics, as they disrupt the gut bacterial community which protects from C. difficile colonization. Multiple antibiotic classes have been associated with CDI susceptibility, many leading to distinct communit...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the relative propensities of oritavancin and vancomycin to induce Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in hamster and in vitro human gut models. METHODS Hamsters received clindamycin (100 mg/kg orally or subcutaneously), oritavancin (50 mg/kg orally) or vancomycin (50 mg/kg orally). C. difficile spores were administered orally the next day. Control hamsters received ve...

Clostridium difficile infections are an emerging health problem in the modern hospital environment. Severe alterations of the gut microbiome with loss of resistance to colonization against C. difficile are thought to be the major trigger, but there is no clear concept of how C. difficile infection evolves and which microbiological factors are involved. We sequenced 16S rRNA amplicons generated ...