Use of instrumental methods in the diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection

Abstract

Objective – studying the possibilities of instrumental methods in the diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).Material and methods. We performed dynamic observation of patients who were treated at the Lviv Regional Infectious Diseases Hospital with the following diagnoses: Clostridium difficile infection, pseudomembranous colitis (PMC), and antibiotic-associated diarrhea.Results. Typical ultrasound signs of CDI were present in 16 patients out of 22 examined. In 4 of them, there were no changes on ultrasound, and in 2 of them, only a decrease in peristalsis was detected. Among the examined patients, fibrocolonoscopy (FCS) was performed in 5 cases, of which 4 patients had pseudomembranous plaques characteristic for PMC.Conclusions. Тhe use of instrumental methods of Clostridium difficile infection verification is no less important than laboratory methods. Among the proposed methods one should pay attention to ultrasound. This is an inexpensive, non-invasive method, which, according to our data, allows in 73% of patients to detect typical signs characteristic of Clostridium difficile infection. There are no contraindications for his method, even in severe patients.