The experimental pathogenesis of antibiotic related colitis

Findings from several countries now closely associate Clostridium difficile and its toxin with PMC. In fact, testing for the toxin by means of tissue culture assay is being used more and more to define the proportion of patients with clinically significant antibiotic associated colitis. Reproduction of a similar entity in hamsters appears to fulfil the Koch-Henle postulates, establishing C. difficile as the cause of the syndrome. Antibiotic treatment creates susceptibility to infection rather than being directly responsible for the lesions. The manner in which this occurs is not clear. Animal experiments show that C. difficile is present in some environments and that it may spread through the air and be ingested to cause infection.