prebiotic: a nondigestible food ingredient that benefits the host by selectively stimulating the favorable growth and/ or activity of 1 or more indigenous prebiotic bacteria. prebiotics can modify the intestinal flora and interact with the immune system of the host against specific pathogens. however clinical trials are currently limited and a beneficial effect of prebiotic in treatment acute d...

Alterations in the diversity of the gut microbiota are believed to underlie the development of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD). A molecular phylogenetic analysis was performed to document temporal changes in the diversity of fecal bacteria of a patient who developed AAD. Antibiotic administration was associated with distinct changes in the diversity of the gut microbiota, including a marke...

A common adverse effect of antibiotic use is diarrhea. Probiotics are living microorganisms, which, upon oral ingestion, may prevent antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) by the normalization of an unbalanced gastrointestinal flora. The objective of this systematic review was to assess the benefits and harms of probiotics used for the prevention of AAD in an outpatient setting. A search of the P...

Clostridium difficile is a leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, and a significant etiologic agent of healthcare-associated infections. The mechanisms of attachment and host colonization of C. difficile are not well defined. We hypothesize that non-toxin bacterial factors, especially those facilitating the interaction of C. difficile with the host gut, contribute to the initiation of...

In order to investigate the incidence, clinical and microbiologic characteristics of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in Korea, a prospective observational study was performed. From September 2008 through January 2010, all patients whose stool was tested for toxin assay A&B and/or C. difficile culture were studied for clinical characteristics. Toxin types of the isolates from stool were te...

Clostridium difficile is a frequent cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in adults and older children. However, as many as 80% of infants can be asymptomatically colonized. The reasons for this have not been well established but are believed to be due to differences in toxin receptors or toxin internalization. Determining which children who test positive for C. difficile warrant treatment is...

1 Probiotics for the prevention of pediatric antibiotic-associated diarrhea (Review) Copyright © 2011 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction: Clostridium difficile is a gram positive, anaerobic spore-forming bacterium associated with gastrointestinal disease in humans and animals. It is the most important cause of antibiotic associated diarrhea in humans, and a considerable increase in the incidence of nosocomial C. difficile infection (CDI) has been reported in North America and Europe. More recently, special attention...

OBJECTIVE To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of probiotics in preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) in children. STUDY DESIGN The following electronic databases up to December 2005, in any language, were searched for studies relevant to AAD and probiotics: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and The Cochrane Library. Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) were considered for study inclusion...