Predictors of care

Acquiring diarrhoea in hospital is a serious problem and occurs when susceptible patients receive antibiotics as part of their often life-saving care. The most common cause is Clostridium difficile – a bacterium that normally lives in up to a third of humans but causes no problems. Rates of infection had been falling with increased awareness and improved hygiene but they are starting to creep up again. Clostridium difficle can cause a range of diseases from short-lived, mild diarrhoea to severe disease of the bowel with major effects on the whole body and death.

A study funded by Barts and The London Charity aims to identify substances in the stool and in the blood to enable doctors to predict how severe that individual’s diseases will be. These tests can be performed as soon as a patient complains of diarrhoea. If the tests prove accurate in identifying the subsequent severity of the patient’s illness due to Clostridium. difficile, patients predicted to develop the worst disease can receive the most intensive treatments before they become too unwell to benefit. On the other hand, patients whose disease is predicted by these markers to run its course without causing serious consequences can be spared the side effects and risks of more intensive treatment.