Clostridium difficile colitis: recent therapeutical and immunological considerations
Delmée, M.; Warny, M.
Acta Gastro-Enterologica Belgica 58(3-4): 313-317
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 1784-3227 PMID: 7491844 Document Number: 442126
Clostridium difficile is the main etiological agent of antibiotic associated diarrhoea and pseudomembranous colitis (PMC). It is considered as the most frequent agent of infectious diarrhoea occurring in hospitalized patients, in whom it is responsible for a high morbidity and occasional mortality even when the diagnosis and the treatment are pursued aggressively (1). The pathology is due to the production of at least two toxins: toxin A is an enterotoxin which induces intestinal tissue damage and a fluid response and toxin B is a cytotoxin which lacks any enterotoxic activity but is believed to exert an additive effect in vivo (2).