Prevalence of Clostridium difficile toxin in diarhoeal stool samples of patients from a tertiary hospital in North Eastern Penisular Malaysia.
This study describes the prevalence of Clostridium difficile toxin (CDT) in loose stool samples from inpatients aged more than two years of a tertiary hospital. A total of 175 samples that had been examined were from stool samples that were sent to the Medical Microbiology & Parasitology Laboratory for various clinical indications. The toxin was detected by a commercial immunochromatograhic test, and the patients' demography, clinical features, treatment and outcomes were analyzed from their medical records. Clostridium difficile toxin was positive in 24 (13.7%) of the stool samples. Male and female were 11 (45.8%) and 13 (54.2%) respectively, with the majority of them aged more than 50 years. Most were from medical wards (n = 21, 87.5%), with the rest from surgical wards (n = 2, 8.3%) and intensive care units (n = 1, 3.4%). All the CDT positive patients had history of prior antibiotic usage within 6 weeks before the detection of the toxin. The mean duration of antibiotics usage was 17.75 (+/- 13.75) days, while the mean duration of diarrhea was 5.21((+/- 5.85) days. Eighteen patients had underlying medical illnesses that were diabetes mellitus, chronic renal disease, hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and malignancy; with seven of them being CDT positive while on chemotherapy. Stool occult blood test was positive in 15 patients whereas presence of pus cells in the CD positive stool samples were detected in 21 patients. The duration of hospitalization among the patients was 27.96 (+/- 23.22) days.
Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kampus Kesihatan, Malaysia. sitiasma@kb.usm.my
Siti Asma'
SA
Hassan
Norlela
N
Othman
Fauziah Mohd
FM
Idris
Zaidah
Z
Abdul Rahman
Nurahan
N
Maning
Rosliza
R
Abdul Rahman
Chan Guan
CG
Tiong
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000009:adverse effects; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016360:Clostridioides difficile; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology*; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007422:Intestines / Q000187:drug effects / Q000382:microbiology; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004768:Enterotoxins; C041348:tcdA protein, Clostridium difficile; C031815:toxB protein, Clostridium difficile