title: Clinical manifestations of Campylobacter concisus infection in children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is only sparse information about the clinical impact of Campylobacter concisus infections in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A study was performed during a 2-year period to determine the clinical manifestations in C. concisus-positive children with gastroenteritis. A case patient was defined as a child or teenager (<18 years) with a C. concisus-positive stool sample during the study period. Clinical data were obtained with use of a questionnaire study supplemented with the patients' medical records. The clinical manifestations in these patients were compared with those of patients with Campylobacter jejuni/coli infection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two thousand three hundred seventy-two diarrheic stool samples from 1867 children were cultured for pathogenic enteric bacteria during the study period, and 85 and 109 children with C. concisus and C. jejuni/coli, respectively, were identified. Comparison of the acute clinical manifestations in 44 C. concisus patients with those in 64 C. jejuni/coli patients showed a significantly lower prevalence of fever, chills and blood in stools in the former. However, half of C. concisus patients compared with one-fourth of C. jejuni/coli patients had prolonged diarrhea for more than 2 weeks and two-thirds of all children with C. concisus reported loose stools after 6-month follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  C. concisus infection in children seems to have a milder course of acute gastroenteritis compared with C. jejuni/coli infection but is associated with more prolonged diarrhea. Children with C. concisus have the same degree of late gastrointestinal complaints as children diagnosed with C. jejuni/coli infection.
authors.affiliation: From the Departments of *Infectious Diseases and †Clinical Microbiology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg; and ‡Department of Clinical Microbiology, Slagelse Hospital, Slagelse, Denmark.
authors.forename: Hans Linde
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Engberg
authors.forename: Tove
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ejlertsen
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nielsen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002167:Campylobacter / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome