Department
of Pathology, Microbiology and Forensic Medicine, Jordan
University Hospital, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
We investigated stool specimens of
400 patients at Jordan University Hospital (300 patients with clinical diarrhoea
and 100 controls without diarrhoea) for the presence of Clostridium difficile or
its toxin. We found a 9.7% prevalence rate of C. difficile or its toxin in
stools of patients with diarrhoea. The prevalence of other potential enteric
pathogens, such as Salmonella spp. (2.3%), Shigella spp. (1.0%) and Entamoeba
histolytica (2.7%), was significantly less. Prevalence of C. difficile or its
toxin in controls was 3.0%. Toxin A was detected in 93.1% of C. difficile-associated
diarrhoea cases using an enzyme immunoassay. Our study indicates that C.
difficile-associated diarrhoea is mostly observed among hospitalized patients
aged > or = 50 years, in association with antimicrobial treatment.
PMID: 15332775 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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