Clostridium difficile and toxins in the feces of patients with antimicrobial agents-associated diarrhea

ABSTRACT

Fecal specimens from a total of 51 persons, 36 patients with antimicrobial agent-associated a diarrhea and 15 healthy individuals [controls], were investiagted for the presence of Clostridium difficile and its toxins. C. difficile and its cytotoxins were detected in 11 [91.7%] and 10 [83.3%] of 12 patients diagnosed as having antimicrobial agent-associated pseudomembranous colitis [PMC], in 4 [44.4%] and 3 [33.3%] of 9 patients diagnosed as having antimicrobial agent-associated non-specific colitis, and lastly in 4 [26.7%] and 3 [20%] of 15 patients diagnosed as having antimicrobial agent associated diarrhoea. On the other neither C. difficile nor its toxins were detected in any of the controls. Regarding the antimicrobials mostly implicated in the causation of C. difficle-associated disease [CDAD], ampicillin was the most frequently encountered antimicrobial agent followed by cephalosporins, sulfamethoxazole- trimethoprime, tetracycline, and chloramphenicol