CLOSTRIDIUM-DIFFICILE COLITIS - RECENT THERAPEUTIC AND IMMUNOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Clostridium difficile is the main etiological agent of antibiotic asso ciated diarrhoea and pseudomembranous colitis (PMC), It is considered as the most frequent agent of infectious diarrhoea occuring in hospita lized patients, in whom it is responsible for a high morbidity and occ asional mortality even when the diagnosis and the treatment are pursue d aggressively (1), The pathology is due to the production of at least two toxins: toxin A is an enterotoxin which induces intestinal tissue damage and a fluid response and toxin a Is a cytotoxin which lacks an y enterotoxic activity but is believed to exert an additive effect in vivo (2) (Acta gastroenterol. belg., 1995, 58, 313-317).