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Summary
During a 12 vnonths period, stool samples of 87 patients, suffering from antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, were investigated for the presence of Clostridium difficile and its toxin. These cases were divided into 3 groups. The first group had evidence of pseudomembranous colitis as proved by rectoscopy: 24 stools out of 25 were positive for both C. difficile and the toxin. In the second group of 14 patients, rectoscopy was done but only aspecific colitis was seen or the rectoscopy remained negative: in 11 cases C. difficile was grown while in 9 the toxin assay was positive. In the third group including 48 patients, no rectoscopy was performed: in 26 cases culture was positive and in 24 toxin was demonstrated.
The usefulness of both the culture of the organism and the toxin assay is stressed and the results of the survey are discussed referring to recent work on the subject.