Clinical Review
Atypical Presentations of Clostridium difficile
Fed Pract. 2004 August;21(8):18
Author and Disclosure Information
Syed Ahsan Ali, MD, Afroze Yousuf, MD, Sangeeta Agrawal, MD, and N. Gopalswamy, MD
Dr. Ali is a physician in the gastroenterology section of the Dayton VA Medical Center and a gastroenterology fellow at Wright State University, both in Dayton, OH. Dr. Yousuf is an internist in the department of internal medicine and Dr. Agrawal is an assistant professor of medicine in the department of gastroenterology, Wright State University. Dr. Gopalswamy is the chief of the gastroenterology section of the Dayton VA Medical Center, a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology, and a professor of medicine at Wright State University.
When C. difficile infection has atypical features, the diagnosis may be missed and hospital stay prolonged. But how prevalent are atypical manifestations among veterans, and does atypical symptomology affect outcome?