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. 1982 Jun;15(6):1049–1053. doi: 10.1128/jcm.15.6.1049-1053.1982

Clostridium difficile and its cytotoxin in feces of patients with antimicrobial agent-associated diarrhea and miscellaneous conditions.

W L George, R D Rolfe, S M Finegold
PMCID: PMC272251  PMID: 7107838

Abstract

Fecal specimens from 223 subjects were evaluated for the presence of Clostridium difficile by use of a selective medium developed in our laboratory and for the presence of C. difficile cytotoxin. C. difficile and cytotoxin were detected in 89 and 83%, respectively, of patients with antimicrobial agent-associated pseudomembranous colitis (PMC). In patients in whom PMC was not documented, C. difficile and cytotoxin were present in only 37 and 21%, respectively. C. difficile and cytotoxin were also recovered from the feces of 6 and 3, respectively, of 13 antimicrobial recipients who did not have diarrhea. Although C. difficile appears to be a major cause of PMC, it is not responsible for at least some two-thirds of cases of antimicrobial agent-associated diarrhea in which PMC is not documented. Neither the recovery of C. difficile nor the detection of its cytotoxin should be considered diagnostic for C. difficile-induced disease.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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