title: Low levels of coagulation inhibitors in patients with Clostridium difficile infection.
abstract: To investigate levels of coagulation inhibitors in sera from patients with Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea and colitis, commercially available antigen assays were used for immunochemical determination of antithrombin III, protein C and free protein S. Sera from patients with Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea and colitis showed significantly lowered levels of all measured inhibitors as compared to controls (Student's t test). Protein C (mean +/- SD): 0.70 +/- 0.30 vs. 1.28 +/- 0.23, t = 6.61, p less than 0.001; antithrombin: 0.70 +/- 0.21 vs. 0.90 +/- 0.17, t = 3.12, p less than 0.01; free protein S: 0.27 +/- 0.06 vs. 0.37 +/- 0.08, t = 3.7, p less than 0.001. Infection with C. difficile may lead to loss of coagulation inhibitors and constitutes a risk for thromboembolic complications.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Bacteriology, Stockholm County Council Central Microbiological Laboratory, Sweden.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aronsson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blombäck
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eriksson
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Egberg
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000990:Antithrombin III / Q000032:analysis*; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D016360:Clostridioides difficile; D004761:Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011486:Protein C / Q000032:analysis*; D017293:Protein S
chemical_list: D001798:Blood Proteins; D006023:Glycoproteins; D011486:Protein C; D017293:Protein S; D000990:Antithrombin III