Epidemiology and outcome of Clostridium difficile infections in patients hospitalized in Internal Medicine: findings from the nationwide FADOI-PRACTICE study.

BACKGROUND: Clostridium difficile (CD) is a leading cause of diarrhoea among hospitalized patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the rate, the optimal diagnostic work-up, and outcome of CD infections (CDI) in Internal Medicine (IM) wards in Italy. METHODS: PRACTICE is an observational prospective study, involving 40 IM Units and evaluating all consecutive patients hospitalized during a 4-month period. CDI were defined in case of diarrhoea when both enzyme immunoassay for GDH, and test for A/B toxin were positive. Patients with CDI were followed-up for recurrences for 4 weeks after the end of therapy. RESULTS: Among the 10,780 patients observed, 103 (0.96 %) showed CDI, at admission or during hospitalization. A positive history for CD, antibiotics in the previous 4 weeks, recent hospitalization, female gender and age were significantly associated with CDI (multivariable analysis). In-hospital mortality was 16.5 % in CD group vs 6.7 % in No-CD group (p < 0.001), whereas median length of hospital stay was 16 (IQR = 13) vs 8 (IQR = 8) days (p < 0.001) among patients with or without CDI, respectively. Rate of CD recurrences was 14.6 %. As a post-hoc evaluation, 23 out of 34 GDH+/Tox- samples were toxin positive, when analysed by molecular method (a real-time PCR assay). The overall CD incidence rate was 5.3/10,000 patient-days. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm the severity of CDI in medical wards, showing high in-hospital mortality, prolonged hospitalization and frequent short-term recurrences. Further, our survey supports a 2-3 step algorithm for CD diagnosis: EIA for detecting GDH, A and B toxin, followed by a molecular method in case of toxin-negative samples.

The assessment of complexity in internal medicine patients. The FADOI Medicomplex Study.

BACKGROUND: Although the number of elderly people is progressively increasing in the world, old and very old patients have been under-represented and understudied in trials evaluating the efficacy of chronic illness management models. The usual hospital indicators and practice guidelines do not consider the effects of complexity - co-morbidity, social support, functional and cognitive status, patient adherence to therapy, risk of adverse drug reactions - in these subjects. The aim of this observational, multi-centric cohort study was to carefully assess factors contributing to the complexity of care for patients admitted to internal medicine wards. This was done by evaluating the severity of disease and degree of stability at admission, co-morbidity, age-related impairments, and the need for discharge planning plus post-discharge support. METHODS: A total of 386 patients from 11 internal medicine wards in Emilia-Romagna and Marche, Italy, enrolled in a given week were evaluated. At admission, the following variables were recorded: demographic characteristics, medical history, global clinical-social prognostic evaluation, co-morbidity, severity of illness, presence of shock or hemodynamic instability, coma, and frequencies and causes of unscheduled hospital re-admission. RESULTS: Cancer, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were the most frequent primary diagnoses. The complexity of our case study was characterized by several concomitant diseases. Over 50% of the patients were considered severe or more than severe, and over 20% extremely severe, with very high co-morbidity indices and illness severity scores. Some 55% of our patients were in need of partial or total care; 10% had some speech impairment, and 63% needed in-home health care after hospital discharge. CONCLUSIONS: The increasing numbers of elderly patients admitted to internal medicine departments suggests the need for a chronic illness management model, integrating gerontological and geriatric care to improve outcomes. For effective care, future protocols need to take a multi-dimensional, interdisciplinary approach to these patients and to develop a coordinated, integrated plan for treatment and long-term follow-up.