The microbial etiologies of diarrhea in hospitalized patients from the Puerto Rico Medical Center Hospitals

The development of diarrhea in hospitalized patients is a frequently encountered clinical problem, which may be due to infectious or non-infectious causes. The purpose of this study was to identify which common community enteric pathogens, if any, are responsible for diarrheal episodes in hospitaliz...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Puerto Rico health sciences journal Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 41 - 44
Main Authors:	Carrer, Mildred, Vázquez, Guillermo J, Lebrón, Rafael I, Mercado, Xiomara, Martínez, Idalí, Vázquez, Carmen O, Santé, Maria, Robledo, Iraida E
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Puerto Rico Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Ciencias Medicas 01-03-2005
Subjects:	Adolescent Adult Aged Aged, 80 and over Care and treatment Case studies Child Child, Preschool Cross infection Diarrhea - epidemiology Diarrhea - microbiology Female Gastroenteritis - epidemiology Gastroenteritis - microbiology Hospital patients Humans Infant Infant, Newborn Inpatients - statistics & numerical data Male Middle Aged Nosocomial infections Puerto Rico - epidemiology Puerto Rico
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Summary:	The development of diarrhea in hospitalized patients is a frequently encountered clinical problem, which may be due to infectious or non-infectious causes. The purpose of this study was to identify which common community enteric pathogens, if any, are responsible for diarrheal episodes in hospitalized patients. Stool samples from 76 consecutive, hospitalized patients were analyzed utilizing routine bacterial cultures, smears for identification of ova and parasites and Enzyme-Link Immunoadsorbent Assay (ELISA) for enteric bacteria, parasites and viruses. The results obtained demonstrated that the usual community enteric pathogens were not identified as a major cause of nosocomial diarrhea. In hospital-acquired diarrhea, Clostridium difficile toxins assay was the only clinically significant test in the evaluation of these patients. As a result of this study a guideline for the management of this condition in hospitalized patients is presented.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0738-0658