title: Nosocomial diarrhoea in the elderly due to enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens.
abstract: To diagnose sporadic diarrhoea due to Clostridium perfringens infection, faecal specimens from elderly patients were examined directly for C.perfringens enterotoxin using reverse passive latex agglutination assay, and then cultured for this organism. C.perfringens isolates from those samples were grouped by slide agglutination and by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Fifty of the 60 isolates agglutinated with newly raised antiserum WX2 and 38 shared the same genomic PFGE pattern. Characteristics of the epidemics and experimental data suggest that the diarrhoea was caused by a nosocomial spread of C.perfringens, and not by a food-borne outbreak.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology, National Institute of Health, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fukayama
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hatakeyama
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yanagawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Inamatsu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D003016:Clostridium perfringens / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D006782:Hospitals, Special; D006801:Humans; D007841:Latex Fixation Tests
chemical_list: D004768:Enterotoxins; C035598:enterotoxin, Clostridium