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Review Article
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Volume 330:257-262 January 27, 1994 Number 4
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Clostridium difficile Colitis
Ciaran P. Kelly, Charalabos Pothoulakis, and J. Thomas LaMont

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Clostridium difficile, the agent that causes pseudomembranous colitis associated with antibiotic therapy, has been identified in recent years as a common nosocomial pathogen. First described in 1935 by Hall and O'Toole, this gram-positive anaerobic bacillus was named "the difficult clostridium" because it resisted early attempts at isolation and grew very slowly in culture1. Although the organism released potent toxins in broth culture, the fact that it was found in stool specimens from healthy neonates led to its classification as a commensal. C. difficile subsequently passed into obscurity.

In the 1960s and 1970s antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis became a major clinical . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Pathogenesis

Epidemiology

Clinical Presentation

Laboratory Diagnosis

Treatment

Initial Therapy

Treatment of Recurrent Diarrhea from C. difficile Infection


Source Information

From the Section of Gastroenterology, Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research, Boston University Medical Center, Boston.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Kelly at Gastroenterology, E201, Boston University Medical Center, University Hospital, 88 E. Newton St., Boston, MA 02118.

References


Related Letters:

Clostridium difficile Colitis
Fang F. C., Madinger N. E., Berman D. S., Wenglin B. D., Goldman W. M., Avicolli A. S., Lutwick S., Kelly C. P., Pothoulakis C., Lamont J. T.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 1994; 330:1754-1755, Jun 16, 1994. Correspondence

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