Table 3. Clinical Characteristics of the study population at admission, by study groups.
| Clinical Characteristics | Cases: Patients testing positive for C. difficile (N = 212) | Patients without C. difficile infection | |
| Patients negative on C. difficile test - Controls type 1 (N = 185) | Patients without a C. difficile test - Controls type 2 (N = 159) | ||
| Primary Diagnosis, % (n) | |||
| Cardiovascular | 16.5% (34) | 17.8% (33) | 18.2% (29) |
| Infectious | 67.0% (142) | 58.9% (109) | 61.6% (98) |
| Neoplasm | 8.0% (17) | 11.4% (21) | 8.8% (14) |
| Orthopedics | 3.3% (7) | 2.7% (5) | 0.6% (1) |
| Renal | 2.8 (6) | 2.7% (5) | 6.9 (11) |
| Others | 2.8 (6) | 6.5% (12) | 3.8 (6) |
| (pv vs. cases) | (pv = 0.370) | (pv = 0.199) | |
| Co-morbidities, % (n) (pv vs. cases) | |||
| History MI | 19.8%(42) | 27.6%(51) (pv = 0.182) | 25.2%(40) (pv = 0.532) |
| Heart failure | 43.3%(94) | 40.5%(75) (pv = 0.177) | 40.3%(64) (pv = 0.306) |
| Chronic Pulmonary Disease | 8.0%(17) | 8.6%(16) (pv = 0.839) | 11.3%(18) (pv = 0.850) |
| Pneumonia | 30.2% (17) | 30.3% (56) (pv = 1.000) | 20.8% (33) (pv = 0.030) |
| Diabetes | 34.4%(73) | 37.3%(69) (pv = 1.000) | 34.6%(55) (pv = 0.810) |
| Hypertension | 46.2%(98) | 48.1%(89) (pv = 0.644) | 52.2%(83) (pv = 0.550) |
| Chronic Renal Failure | 13.7%(29) | 14.1%(26) (pv = 0.880) | 13.2%(21) (pv = 0.424) |
| Peptic Ulcer Disease | 4.7%(10) | 4.9%(9) (pv = 1.000) | 2.5%(4) (pv = 0.344) |
| Cancer | 19.3%(41) | 26.5%(49) (pv = 0.057) | 19.5%(31) (pv = 1.000) |
| Anemia | 40.1%(85) | 37.8%(70) (pv = 1.000) | 28.3%(43) (pv = 0.001) |
| Charlson Index | |||
| Mean±SD | 5.0±3.3 | 5.6±3.9 | 5.0±3.3 |
| Median | 5.0 | 6.0 | 5.0 |
| Min-Max (pv vs. cases) | 0.0–19.0 | 0.0–18.0 (pv = 0.114) | 0.0–15.0 (pv = 0.520) |