Pancreatic disease patients are at higher risk for Clostridium difficile infection compared to those with other co-morbidities

A total of 2036 patients, whose fecal samples were processed for C. difficile toxin A and B assay by ELISA formed the basis of study. Patients with underlying diseases were classified based on the organ/kind of disease as pancreatic (n = 340), renal (n = 408), hepatic (n = 245), malignant (n = 517) and miscellaneous disease (n = 526). Laboratory records of clinical and demographic details were reviewed. The association of CDI with age, gender, antibiotic receipt, clinical symptoms and underlying co-morbidities was analyzed. Variation in CDI cases based on age groups was also investigated.

Clostridium difficile toxin positivity was 21.6% in general, whereas it was 30.6% in the pancreatic, 17.9% in the renal, 19.6%, in the hepatic, 21.3% in the malignancy and 20.0% in the miscellaneous disease groups. Toxin positivity was the lowest (14.8%) for female gender under renal disease and the highest (31.8%) for patients aged 40 to < 60 years, under pancreatic disease. Bloody diarrhea was a significant predictor for C. difficile toxin positivity. C. difficile toxin status irrespective to the underlying diseases was neither dependent on gender, age-groups or the number of antibiotics used. Association between patients’ gender, age and antibiotics receipt with underlying disease conditions, respective to C. difficile toxin status showed significance in relation to male gender (p < 0.05), age 40 to < 60 years (p = 0.03) and those receiving single (p = 0.09) or multiple antibiotics (p = 0.07).

Pancreatic disease patients are at a higher risk for developing CDI, and particularly male gender, age 40 to < 60 years and those receiving antibiotics are at significant risk.