Intensive Care Unit Inpatients Complicated with Diarrhea Mediated by Toxigenic Clostridium Difficile: Rapid Diagnosis and Efficient Treatment

ABSTRACT

Identifying infections in a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) is challenging due to involvement of tracheal tubes and invasive catheters. Prophylactic antibiotic therapy may prevent some infections, but may predispose CVA patient to toxigenic Clostridium difficile diarrhea. Ninety-eight CVA patients were studied who suffered from diarrhea during antibiotic treatment. Toxigenic culture, cytotoxicity assays and multiplex Real-time PCR results yielded 26 (5.3%) toxigenic C. difficile among which 22 cases were positive for both A and B toxin genes (tcdA, tcdB) and four were positive for tcdB. C. difficile infection was controlled through prescribed oral vancomycin as the firstline and intravenous metronidazole as the second-line antibiotic-therapy.

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