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A Protocol to Characterize the Morphological Changes of Clostridium difficile in Response to Antibiotic Treatment
Published on: May 25, 2017
Molecular analysis of Clostridium difficile strains isolated from 18 cases of recurrent clostridium
Yajarayma Tang-Feldman1, Susan Mayo, Joseph Silva
1Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious and Immunologic Diseases, University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California 95817, USA.
Abstract:
Recurrence of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) occurs in 15 to 20% of patients after discontinuation of treatment. Arbitrarily primed PCR was used to investigate the epidemiology of recurrent CDAD in 18 patients. Reinfection with a new strain occurred in 6 of 18 patients (33.3%), while 12 patients relapsed with the original strain shortly after discontinuation of treatment. These data suggest that reinfection with exogenous C. difficile is a common problem and that not all recurrences are due to relapse.
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