Isolation of campylobacter in adult patients with chronic diarrhoea and the effects of spiramycin

ABSTRACT

One hundred adult patients with chronic diarrhea were studied in a trial to determine the frequency of Campylobacter jejuni infection in such cases. The stools of the patients and that of 70 adult controls were cultured for C. jejuni. The organism was isolated in 6% of the patients and it was not isolated from stool cultures of the 70 controls. Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from 2 [28.6%] out 7 cases with ulcerative colitis, 3 [5.4%] out 56 cases with irritable bowel syndrome, and 1 [9.1%] out of II patients who had liver cirrhosis associated with chronic diarrhoea. The duration of diarrhoea in patients with positive culture for C. jejuni varied widely from 25 days to 18 months. Consistency of stools was semi solid in [4 cases] and watery in [2 cases]. Stool samples contained gross blood in two cases. Abdominal pain was a common symptom, but vomiting and fever were less common. We conclude that C. jejuni has a role in patients with chronic diarrhoea, and it should be looked for in the stool of such cases particularly if the diagnosis is not established or the response to treatment is not satisfactory