Table 1.
Patient demographics and baseline characteristics from tertiary care medical centre analysis of patients with CDI and chronic liver disease (CLD) compared with other hospitalised patients with CDI
| Variable | Chronic liver disease only (n = 73) |
C. difficile only (n = 111) |
C. difficile + CLD (n = 41) |
P value* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, years (mean ± s.d.) | 58 ± 11 | 64 ± 20 | 60 ± 9 | 0.014 |
| Male gender – n (%) | 48 (66) | 44 (40) | 25 (61) | 0.019 |
| Race – n (%) | ||||
| African American/Black | 11 (15) | 25 (22.5) | 9 (22) | 0.26 |
| Caucasian | 41 (56) | 70 (63.1) | 21 (51) | |
| Hispanic | 16 (22) | 11 (9.9) | 9 (22) | |
| Other | 5 (7) | 5 (4.5) | 2 (5) | |
| Charlson's co-morbidity index – median (25–75 quartile) | 4 (3–5) | 2 (1–4) | 5 (3–6) | <0.0001 |
| Aetiology of CLD – n (%) | ||||
| Hepatitis B or C virus | 32 (44) | – | 19 (46) | N/A |
| Alcohol-induced | 21 (29) | – | 14 (34) | |
| Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease | 20 (27) | – | 8 (20) | |
| Cirrhosis-related complications – n (%) | ||||
| Hepatic encephalopathy | 56 (77) | – | 24 (59) | N/A |
| Ascites | 46 (63) | – | 27 (66) | |
| Oesophageal varices | 43 (59) | – | 22 (54) | |
| Prior spontaneous bacterial peritonitis | 20 (27) | – | 10 (24) | |
| CDI related variables | ||||
| Medication use – n (%) | ||||
| PPI | 50 (68) | 71 (64) | 32 (78) | |
| Scheduled use of narcotics | 25 (34) | 26 (23) | 13 (32) | |
| Continued use of non-CDI antibiotics | 49 (67) | 82 (74) | 30 (73) | |
| Hospital onset CDI – n (%) | – | 40 (36) | 16 (39) | 0.46 |
| CDI severity variables | ||||
| ICU admit | – | 33 (30) | 13 (32) | 0.81 |
| Creatinine > 2.5 | – | 20 (19) | 9 (22) | 0.64 |
| Leucocytosis > 15 000 | – | 28 (26) | 8 (20) | 0.41 |
| Temperature > 100F | – | 13 (12) | 3 (7.5) | 0.45 |
| CDI outcome variables | ||||
| 30-day mortality | – | 11 (9.9) | 7 (22) | 0.22 |
| Length of hospital stay (median (25–75 quartile)) | 7 (4–14) | 8 (5–13) | 0.55 |
*
P value comparison between patients with C. difficile only and C. difficile + Chronic liver disease. Tests between patients with Chronic Liver Disease only and C. difficile + Chronic liver disease were non-significant.