1985 Volume 59 Issue 12 Pages 1210-1224
Twenty five strains (25.8%) of Clostridium difficile were recovered from the faeces of 97 cases with antibiotic-associated colitis.Seventy-five percent (9 strains from 12 cases) of pseudomembranous colitis, 17.9%(5 strains from 28 cases) of nonspecific colitis and 8.7%(2 strains from 23 cases) of the cases which did not show abnormal findings endoscopically had positive culture rate of C.difficile.
None of C.difficile strains was isolated from acute haemorrhagic colitis.Cytotoxin activity of the faeces to HeLa cells was detected in 19 faeces (83.3%) of 12 cases with pseudomembranous colitis and in 6 faeces (21.4%) of 28 cases with nonspecific colitis.
Whereas among the 16 cases with positive culture of C.difficile, pseudomembanous colitis cases accounted for 56.3%(9 cases), nonspecific colitis cases for 31.3%(5 cases) and the cases which did not show abnormal findings endoscopically for 12.5%(2 cases).
The toxin titer of the faeces in the cases of pseudomembranous colitis was significantly higher than in the cases of non-pseudomembranous colitis.It would be suggested that the toxin titer would reflect the pathogenesis or pathophysiological elements, and changing of the toxin titer in medical course would also reflect the response to the treatment.
A hamster model of haemorrhagic caecitis was produced by oral administration of antibiotics.C. difficile and its toxin were detected from the caecal contents of all the hamsters.
A haemorrhagic caecitis in hamsters was also induced by any method of oral administration of these caecal contents, faecal filtrates of pseudomembranous colitis patients or culture filtrate of C.difficile. But on the other hand, it was unable to make the caecitis in hamsters by both oral administrations of faecal filtrate of acute haemorrhagic colitis patients and culture filtrates of Klebsiella oxytoca which was isolated from the patients with haemorrhagic colitis.
It has been proved on the results of this study that the toxin of C.difficile has a significant role in pseudomembranous colitis, but the etiology on acute haemorrhagic colitis was not clear, because toxin was not detected from the faeces in this study.
