community c diff infections
potentially useful study done in Denmark looking at the prevalence of c. difficile infections in community patients seen for unformed stools (see cdiff in community clin microbio 2014 in dropbox, or doi.org/10.1111/1469-0691.12758#sthash.lfaoG3fB.dpuf). details: --12174 "unformed stool" samples sent to lab for evaluation for any enteric pathogen by general practitioners were then automatically tested for c. diff --194 samples (1.5%) were positive for c diff, comparable to incidence of salmonella. they did nested case-control study, with 152 c diff patients compared with 304 age and sex-matched controls and using weighted multi-variable logistic regression --compared to others with diarrhea, those with c diff had more severe complaints, underlying diseases, antibiotic use, prior hospitalization (none of this particularly surprising) --but in Denmark, MDs requested c diff testing in only 7% of samples (which...