title: Community-acquired Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea in a patient with colonic carcinoma.
abstract: In the vast majority of cases, Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea and pseudomembranous colitis develop following the use of antibiotics. We report a case in which C. difficile-associated diarrhoea was diagnosed in the absence of previously reported predisposing factors. It transpired that the patient had a colonic carcinoma. We suggest that a diagnosis of C. difficile-associated diarrhoea in the absence of a history of antibiotics or other established causes should prompt a colonoscopy to search for alternative explanations for the alteration in bowel flora which such an infection indicates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Kingston Hospital, Surrey, UK.
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Heymann
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Rampton
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016360:Clostridioides difficile; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000382:microbiology*; D017714:Community-Acquired Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology; D004761:Enterocolitis, Pseudomembranous / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male