Previous studies suggested that 7 to 15% of healthy adults are colonized with toxigenic Clostridium difficile. To investigate the epidemiology, genetic diversity, and duration of C. difficile colonization in asymptomatic persons, we recruited healthy adults from the general population in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Participants provided epidemiological and dietary intake data and submitted ...

Clostridium difficile is commonly associated with healthcare-related infections in humans, and is an emerging pathogen in food animal species. There is potential for transmission of C. difficile from animals or animal products to humans. This study aimed to determine if C. difficile RT 237 had persisted in a Western Australian piggery or if there had been a temporal change in C. difficile diver...

OBJECTIVES We tested a previously published model for the analysis of the temporal relationship between antibiotic use and the incidence of Clostridium difficile infection in a hospital with stable incidence of infection at >1 case per 1000 admissions per month. METHODS The study period was from April 2004 to June 2008 and used data from Infection Control and Hospital Pharmacy. We first descr...

C. difficile infection is associated with disturbed gut microbiota and changes in relative frequencies and abundance of individual bacterial taxons have been described. In this study we have analysed bacterial, fungal and archaeal microbiota by denaturing high pressure liquid chromatography (DHPLC) and with machine learning methods in 208 faecal samples from healthy volunteers and in routine sa...

Since every single test has some limitations for detecting toxigenic Clostridium difficile, multistep algorithms are recommended. This study aimed to compare the current, representative diagnostic algorithms for detecting toxigenic C. difficile, using VIDAS C. difficile toxin A&B (toxin ELFA), VIDAS C. difficile GDH (GDH ELFA, bioMérieux, Marcy-l'Etoile, France), and Xpert C. difficile (Cepheid...

background : an accurate and prompt diagnosis of bacterial arthritis is essential for earlier treatment and a good outcome. superantigens produced by staph. aureus are among the most lethal toxins. the paper objective was identification of common bacterial antigens and s.aureus superantigens in synovial fluid (sf) of children with negative culture and direct smear for other bacteria except for ...

AIM Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE) ranging from mild to severe forms is commonly encountered in puppies. The aim of the study was to identify the prevalence of common enteropathogens and the antibiotic sensitivity pattern in puppies reported with HGE. MATERIALS AND METHODS The canine HGE activity index, with little modification, was adopted to identify Grade III/severely affected puppies b...

BACKGROUND Clostridium difficile is the main cause of nosocomial diarrhea, but is also found in asymptomatic subjects that are potentially involved in transmission of C. difficile infection. A sensitive and accurate detection method of C. difficile, especially toxigenic strains is indispensable for the epidemiological investigation. METHODS TaqMan-based quantitative-PCR (qPCR) method for targ...

We have tested the in vitro binding of Clostridium difficile toxin A (enterotoxin) and cholera toxin to intestinal brush border membranes prepared from either conventional or axenic mice. Membranes from axenic mice were shown to be saturated at a lower toxin A concentration (at least 2.5 times lower). Because there were no significant differences between membranes from axenic and conventional m...

The neuropeptide neurotensin mediates several intestinal functions, including chloride secretion, motility, and cellular growth. However, whether this peptide participates in intestinal inflammation is not known. Toxin A, an enterotoxin from Clostridium difficile, mediates pseudomembranous colitis in humans. In animal models, toxin A causes an acute inflammatory response characterized by activa...