Stools from 109 patients with inflammatory bowel disease (13.4%) contained Clostridium difficile or its toxin, an incidence similar to the stools of 99 control patients with diarrhoea (11.9%), but significantly higher than the stools of 77 control patients with a normal bowel habit (1.4%). Sixty-six per cent of the diarrhoea controls, but only 11% of the inflammatory bowel disease patients, rep...