Background. The epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection has changed over time. Therefore, it is essential to monitor the characteristics of patients at risk of infection and factors associated with poor prognosis. Objective. To evaluate factors associated with C. difficile infection and with poor prognosis in those with documented C. difficile colitis. Methods. A retrospective case-cont...

Chronic diarrhea, defined as two or more loose or watery stools per day for at least 1 month is common in patients with AIDS. It’s a causal relationship between the immunosuppression and the diarrhea in these patients. We evaluated the most common causes of diarrhea in patients with AIDS. 32 consecutive patients with AIDS were submitted with chronic diarrhea (19 males, 13 females), mean age 20....

The clinical and laboratory findings of 290 cases of bloody diarrhea who presented to the department of Diarrhea Training and Treatment between June 1998 and May 2002 were investigated, and compared to those of two consecutive cases who had watery diarrhea. The bloody diarrhea group had higher mean age, higher frequencies of diarrhea, lower frequencies of vomiting, and shorter durations of diar...

Respiratory tract infections have an important clinical and economic impact and they are the most common indication for antibiotic use in outpatient practice. This prospective, multicenter non-controlled trial assessed the efficacy and safety of gatifloxacin in the treatment of community-acquired respiratory tract infections. Patients were treated with a daily oral dose of gatifloxacin 400 mg f...

Background Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) leads to the onset of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) and a wide range of gastrointestinal pathologies. Currently, CDI is one of the most important opportunistic infections at the intrahospital level and an exponential increase in community-acquired infections has been reported. Herein, we evaluated the relationships (at phylogenetic and gen...

As I walked toward the elevators at the end of a long call night, I saw a patient sitting on the edge of her bed, staring blankly into the hall. Like many on the oncology floor, she had lost her hair. I waved at her. She nodded. I took a few steps into her room. I introduced myself; she told me her name— Julie. I asked Julie how she was feeling. “I’m trying to make a decision,” she said, chokin...

Cyclospora cayetanensis is a coccidian agent of chronic diarrhea in humans with a worldwide distribution. We report the first documented case of acquired Cyclosporiasis in Italy. The patient was an immunocompetent woman with no recent history of travel outside the country. Microscopy detected Cyclospora oocysts in a feces sample. PCR detected the pathogen in a second sample, which had tested ne...

background: cryptosporidium parvum is a protozoan parasite which belongs to apicomplexa phylum. the parasite infects both wild and domesticated animals and human beings as well. objectives: the purpose of the present study was to detect oocyst shedding and diarrhea pattern in experimental cryptosporidiosis and their correlation with weight loss in neonatal calves. methods: twelve holstein calve...

We made an open label, multicenter, non-comparative study to assess the efficacy and safety of oral gatifloxacin, 400 mg PO given once-daily during 7 to 14 days for the treatment of adult outpatients with community-acquired pneumonia at five Brazilian medical facilities. Among the 86 subjects available for clinical evaluation, 84 (98%) were cured. The bacteriological eradication and presumed er...