Onset of symptoms and time to diagnosis of Clostridium difficile-associated disease following discharge from an acute care hospital.

Chang HT, Krezolek D, Johnson S, Parada JP, Evans CT, Gerding DN. Onset of symptoms and time to diagnosis of Clostridium difficile-associated disease following discharge from an acute care hospital. Infection control and hospital epidemiology : the official journal of the Society of Hospital Epidemiologists of America. 2007 Aug 1; 28(8):926-31.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

• IIR 04-235 – Antibiotic Use, Resistance and Clostridium Difficile-Associated Diarrhea

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: To identify patients with a diagnosis of Clostridium difficile-associated disease (CDAD) in the ambulatory care setting and determine the relationship of symptom onset and diagnosis to prior hospitalization and exposure to antimicrobials. DESIGN: Single-center, retrospective study. METHODS: Medical records were reviewed for outpatients and hospitalized patients with a stool assay positive for C. difficile toxin A from January 1998 through March 2005. Patients with recurrent CDAD or residing in an extended-care facility were excluded. CDAD in patients who had been hospitalized in the 100 days prior to diagnosis was considered potentially hospital-associated. RESULTS: Of the 84 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 75 (89%) received a diagnosis 1-60 days after hospital discharge (median, 12 days), and 71 (85%) received a diagnosis within 30 days after discharge. Of the 69 patients whose records contained information regarding time of symptom onset, 62 (90%) developed diarrhea within 30 days of a previous hospital discharge, including 7 patients with symptom onset prior to discharge and 9 with onset on the day of discharge. The median time from symptom onset to diagnosis was 6 days. Of 84 patients, 77 (92%) had received antimicrobials during a prior hospitalization, but 55 (65%) received antimicrobials both as inpatients and as outpatients. CONCLUSION: If all cases of CDAD diagnosed within 100 days of hospital discharge were assumed to be hospital-associated, 71 (85%) of 84 patients with CDAD were identified within 30 days, and 75 (89%) of 84 were identified by day 60. Continued outpatient antimicrobial exposure confounds determination of whether late-onset cases are community- or hospital-associated.