BACKGROUND: In the last two decades, a significant increase in the number of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) cases has been observed. It is understandable to attempt to determine the factors that can predict the severity of the course of the infection and identify patients at risk of death. This study aimed to analyze the factors affecting the incidence and mortality of CDI in inpatient treatment at the University Clinical Hospital in Wrocław in 2016-2018.
METHODS: Statistical analysis of data obtained from patients\' medical records was performed. Only patients with symptoms of infection and infection confirmed by laboratory tests were enrolled in the study. When analyzing the number of deaths, only adult patients who died in hospital wards were included. The quantitative data including laboratory tests, used antibiotics and Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS) were assessed. Also, the qualitative data such as sex, year of hospitalization, occurrence of diarrhoea on admission to the hospital, presence of additional diseases, as wee ad the use of antibacterial drugs or proton pump blockers and ranitidine during hospitalization were analyzed.
RESULTS: A total of 319 adult CDI patients (178 women and 141 men) were enrolled of which 80 people died (50 women and 30 men). The mean age of the patients was 72.08 ± 16.74 years. Over the entire period studied, the morbidity was 174 cases per 100,000 hospitalizations while mortality was 25.08%. The group of deceased patients was characterized by: older age (by 9.24 years), longer duration of hospitalization (by 10 days), reduced albumin levels (Rho = -0.235, p < 0.001), higher urea levels, use of more antibiotics, higher risk of malnutrition in NRS (Rho = 0.219, p < 0.001), higher incidence of sepsis, heart failure, stroke, hypothyroidism. Pneumonia was diagnosed twice as often. It was also shown that deceased patients were significantly more likely to take penicillin and fluoroquinolones.
CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the morbidity was lower, but mortality was higher compared to similar hospitals in Poland. CDI patients were characterized by older age, multimorbidity, extended hospitalization, and the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics. Risk factors for death included advanced age, prolonged hospital stays, lower albumin, higher urea, malnutrition, and comorbidities like heart failure, stroke, pneumonia, sepsis, and hypothyroidism. Increased antibiotic use, particularly penicillin and fluoroquinolones, was associated with a higher mortality risk.

BACKGROUND: Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs) and recurrences (rCDIs) remain a major public health challenge due to substantial mortality and associated costs. This study aims to generate real-world evidence on the mortality and economic burden of CDI in Germany using claims data between 2015 and 2019.
METHODS: A longitudinal and matched cohort study using retrospective data from Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) was conducted in Germany with the BKK database. Adults diagnosed with CDI in hospital and community settings between 2015 and 2018 were included in the study. Patients had a minimum follow-up of 12-months. All-cause mortality was described at 6-, 12-, and 24-months. Healthcare resource usage (HCRU) and associated costs were assessed at 12-months of follow-up. A cohort of non-CDI patients matched by demographic and clinical characteristics was used to assess excess mortality and incremental costs of HCRU. Up to three non-CDI patients were matched to each CDI patient.
RESULTS: A total of 9,977 CDI patients were included in the longitudinal cohort. All-cause mortality was 32%, 39% and 48% at 6-, 12-, and 24-months, respectively, with minor variations by number of rCDIs. When comparing matched CDI (n = 5,618) and non-CDI patients (n = 16,845), CDI patients had an excess mortality of 2.17, 1.35, and 0.94 deaths per 100 patient-months, respectively. HCRU and associated costs were consistently higher in CDI patients compared to non-CDI patients and increased with recurrences. Total mean and median HCRU cost per patient during follow-up was €12,893.56 and €6,050 in CDI patients, respectively, with hospitalisations representing the highest proportion of costs. A total mean incremental cost per patient of €4,101 was estimated in CDI patients compared to non-CDI patients, increasing to €13,291 in patients with ≥ 3 rCDIs.
CONCLUSIONS: In this real-world study conducted in Germany, CDI was associated with increased risk of death and substantial costs to health systems due to higher HCRU, especially hospitalisations. HCRU and associated costs were exacerbated by rCDIs.

暂无摘要。

BACKGROUND: Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) causes a major burden to individuals and society, yet the impact may vary depending on age, sex, underlying comorbidities and where CDI was acquired (hospital or community).
METHODS: This Swedish nationwide population-based cohort study (2006-2019) compared all 43,150 individuals with CDI to their 355,172 matched controls (first year and entire follow-up). Negative binomial regression models compared the cumulated length of stay, number of in-hospital admissions, outpatient visits and prescriptions after the first CDI episode expressed as incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals for the entire follow-up.
RESULTS: Overall, 91.6% of CDI cases were hospital acquired, and 16.8% presented with recurrence(s); 74.8%of cases were ≥ 65 years and 54.2% were women. Compared to individuals without CDI, in-hospital stay rates were 18.01 times higher after CDI (95% CI 17.40-18.63, first-year: 27.4 versus 1.6 days), 9.45 times higher in-hospital admission (95% CI 9.16-9.76, first-year: 2.6 versus 1.3 hospitalisations), 3.94 times higher outpatient visit (95% CI 3.84-4.05, first-year: 4.0 versus 1.9 visits) and 3.39 times higher dispensed prescriptions rates (95% CI 3.31-3.48, first-year: 25.5 versus 13.7 prescriptions). For all outcomes, relative risks were higher among the younger (< 65 years) than the older (≥ 65 years), and in those with fewer comorbidities, but similar between sexes. Compared to those without recurrence, individuals with recurrence particularly showed a higher rate of hospital admissions (IRR = 1.18, 95% 1.12-1.24). Compared to community-acquired CDI, those with hospital-acquired CDI presented with a higher rate of hospital admissions (IRR = 7.29, 95% CI 6.68-7.96) and a longer length of stay (IRR = 7.64, 95% CI 7.07-8.26).
CONCLUSIONS: CDI was associated with increased health consumption in all affected patient groups. The majority of the CDI burden could be contributed to hospital-acquired CDI (~ 9/10), older patients (~ 3/4) and those with multiple comorbidities (~ 6/10 Charlson score ≥ 3), with 1/5 of the total CDI burden contributed to individuals with recurrence. Yet, relatively speaking the burden was higher among the younger and those with fewer comorbidities, compared to their peers without CDI.

BACKGROUND: Since the emergence of hypervirulent strains of Clostridioides difficile, the incidence of C. difficile infections (CDI) has increased significantly.
METHODS: To assess the incidence of CDI in Korea, we conducted a prospective multicentre observational study from October 2020 to October 2021. Additionally, we calculated the incidence of CDI from mass data obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) from 2008 to 2020.
RESULTS: In the prospective study with active surveillance, 30,212 patients had diarrhoea and 907 patients were diagnosed with CDI over 1,288,571 patient-days and 193,264 admissions in 18 participating hospitals during 3 months of study period; the CDI per 10,000 patient-days was 7.04 and the CDI per 1,000 admission was 4.69. The incidence of CDI was higher in general hospitals than in tertiary hospitals: 6.38 per 10,000 patient-days (range: 3.25-12.05) and 4.18 per 1,000 admissions (range: 1.92-8.59) in 11 tertiary hospitals, vs. 9.45 per 10,000 patient-days (range: 5.68-13.90) and 6.73 per 1,000 admissions (range: 3.18-15.85) in seven general hospitals. With regard to HIRA data, the incidence of CDI in all hospitals has been increasing over the 13-year-period: from 0.3 to 1.8 per 10,000 patient-days, 0.3 to 1.6 per 1,000 admissions, and 6.9 to 56.9 per 100,000 population, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of CDI in Korea has been gradually increasing, and its recent value is as high as that in the United State and Europe. CDI is underestimated, particularly in general hospitals in Korea.

BACKGROUND: This real-world study assessed the epidemiology and clinical complications of Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs) and recurrences (rCDIs) in hospital and community settings in Germany from 2015 - 2019.
METHODS: An observational retrospective cohort study was conducted among adult patients diagnosed with CDI in hospital and community settings using statutory health insurance claims data from the BKK database. A cross-sectional approach was used to estimate the annual incidence rate of CDI and rCDI episodes per 100,000 insurants. Patients\' demographic and clinical characteristics were described at the time of first CDI episode. Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the time to rCDIs and time to complications (colonic perforation, colectomy, loop ileostomy, toxic megacolon, ulcerative colitis, peritonitis, and sepsis). A Cox model was used to assess the risk of developing complications, with the number of rCDIs as a time-dependent covariate.
RESULTS: A total of 15,402 CDI episodes were recorded among 11,884 patients. The overall incidence of CDI episodes declined by 38% from 2015 to 2019. Most patients (77%) were aged ≥ 65 years. Around 19% of CDI patients experienced at least one rCDI. The median time between index CDI episode to a rCDI was 20 days. The most frequent complication within 12-months of follow-up after the index CDI episode was sepsis (7.57%), followed by colectomy (3.20%). The rate of complications increased with the number of rCDIs. The risk of any complication increased by 31% with each subsequent rCDI (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 1.31, 95% confidence interval: 1.17;1.46).
CONCLUSIONS: CDI remains a public health concern in Germany despite a decline in the incidence over recent years. A substantial proportion of CDI patients experience rCDIs, which increase the risk of severe clinical complications. The results highlight an increasing need of improved therapeutic management of CDI, particularly efforts to prevent rCDI.

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is the most common cause of infectious diarrhea after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). The impact of CDI and its treatment on allo-HCT outcomes and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), including gastrointestinal GVHD (GI-GVHD) is not well established. This multicenter study assessed real-life data on the first-line treatment of CDI and its impact on allo-HCT outcomes. Retrospective and prospective data of patients with CDI after allo-HCT were assessed. We noted statistically significant increase in the incidence of acute GVHD and acute GI-GVHD after CDI (P = 0.005 and P = 0.016, respectively). The first-line treatment for CDI included metronidazole in 34 patients, vancomycin in 64, and combination therapy in 10. Treatment failure was more common with metronidazole than vancomycin (38.2% vs. 6.2%; P < 0.001). The need to administer second-line treatment was associated with the occurrence or exacerbation of GVHD (P < 0.05) and GI-GVHD (P < 0.001) and reduced overall survival (P < 0.05). In the multivariate analysis, the risk of death was associated with acute GVHD presence before CDI (hazard ratio [HR], 3.19; P = 0.009) and the need to switch to second-line treatment (HR, 4.83; P < 0.001). The efficacy of the initial CDI treatment affects survival and occurrence of immune-mediated GI-GVHD after allo-HCT. Therefore, agents with higher efficacy than metronidazole (vancomycin or fidaxomicin) should be administered as the first-line treatment.

UNASSIGNED: Virtual reality simulation (VRS) is an innovative modality in nursing professional development that has the potential to affect patient outcomes.
UNASSIGNED: An experimental cluster randomized controlled trial was performed with RNs on two inpatient units at a large academic health system. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of VRS compared with traditional education on Clostridium difficile rates. Return on investment of nursing professional development activities was also measured to support decision-making and resource allocation.
UNASSIGNED: Rates of C. difficile infection were significantly lower for both groups for the 3-month postintervention period compared with the 10-month period preintervention. Financial analysis showed a return on investment for both modalities, with VRS having higher yields over time.
UNASSIGNED: Findings showed that VRS was an effective instructional method. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2024;55(7):351-358.].

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to assess the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the prevalence, relative incidence (RI), incidence density (ID), ratio of rate incidence (RRI), rate of incidence density (RID), and relative risks (RR) of healthcare-onset Clostridioides difficile infection (HO-CDI) as well as its correlation with the antibiotic consumption.
METHODS: Demographic and analytical data of adult patients exhibiting diarrhoea and testing positive for C. difficile were systematically collected from a tertiary care hospital in Madrid (Spain). The periods analysed included: prepandemic (P0), first pandemic-year (P1), and second pandemic-year (P2). We compared global prevalence, RI of HO-CDI per 1,000-admissions, ID of HO-CDI per 10,000-patients-days, RRI, RID, and RR. Antibiotic consumption was obtained by number of defined daily dose per 100 patient-days.
RESULTS: In P0, the prevalence of HO-CDI was 7.4% (IC95%: 6.2-8.7); in P1, it increased to 8.7% (IC95%: 7.4-10.1) (p = 0.2), and in P2, it continued to increase to 9.2% (IC95%: 8-10.6) (p < 0.05). During P1, the RRI was 1.5 and RID was 1.4. However, during P2 there was an increase in RRI to 1.6 and RID to 1.6. The RR also reflected the increase in HO-CDI: at P1, the probability of developing HO-CDI was 1.5 times (IC95%: 1.2-1.9) higher than P0, while at P2, this probability increased to 1.6 times (IC95%: 1.3-2.1). There was an increase in prevalence, RI, ID, RR, RRI, and RID during the two postpandemic periods respect to the prepandemic period. During P2, this increase was greater than the P1. Meropenem showed a statistically significant difference increased consumption (p < 0.05) during the pandemic period. Oral vancomycin HO-CDI treatment showed an increase during the period of study (p > 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of infection control measures during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic did not appear to alleviate the burden of HO-CDI. The escalation in HO-CDI cases did not exhibit a correlation with overall antibiotic consumption, except for meropenem.

OBJECTIVE: Patients with cancer are vulnerable to Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) due to their disease, treatment and regular hospital contact, yet if CDI-recurrence is more common remains unclear, and differences among cancer types remain unexplored.
METHODS: This Swedish nationwide population-based cohort included all 43,150 individuals with recorded CDI (2006-2019) to assess CDI-recurrence in individuals with and without cancer, with binary multivariable logistic regression, stratified by anatomical location, and survival status.
RESULTS: Compared to those without cancer (N = 29,543), ongoing cancer (diagnosis < 12 months; N = 3,882) was associated with reduced recurrence (OR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.73-0.89), while there was no association with cancer history (diagnosis ≥ 12 months; N = 9,725). There was an increased 8-week all-cause mortality (Ongoing cancer: OR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.43-1.74; Cancer history: OR = 1.45, 95% CI 1.36-1.55) compared to those without cancer. Among CDI-survivors, those with ongoing cancer presented with a decreased odds of recurrence (OR = 0.84, 95% CI 0.76-0.94), compared to those without cancer history, with no association for those with cancer history (OR = 1.04, 95% CI 0.97-1.1). Large variations were seen across cancer types, with the highest observed proportion of recurrence in oral and mesothelial cancer, and the lowest for esophageal cancer, although no statistically significant OR were found.
CONCLUSIONS: The population-based study indicates that individuals with cancer may have fewerrecurrences than expected, yet variations by cancer type were large, and mortality was high.