Risk factors for Clostridioides difficile infection and colonization among patients admitted to intensive care units  in Shanghai, China

Background : Clostridioides difficile is considered to be the main pathogen responsible for hospital-acquired infections. This study performed a prospective study to describe the prevalence, molecular epidemiological characteristics and risk factors of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and Clostridioides difficile colonization (CDC) among patients in intensive care units (ICUs), a tertiary hospital in China, with the aim of providing strategies for efficient CD prevention and control. Methods: Stool samples were collected and anaerobically cultured for C. difficile . The identified isolates were tested for toxin genes and multi-locus sequence typing. The medical records of patients who were divided into CDI, CDC and control groups were collected and analyzed to investigate the risk factors. Results: Of the 800 patients included in the study, 33 (4.12%) and 25 (3.12%) patients were identified with CDI and CDC, respectively. An association was found between CDI patients and having a fever (OR=13.993) or metabolic disorder (OR=7.972), and treatment with fluoroquinolone (OR=42.696) or a combination of antibiotics (OR=2.856). CDC patients were characterized by longer hospital stays (OR=1.137), an increased number of comorbidities (OR=36.509), respiratory diseases (OR=0.043) and treatment with vancomycin (OR=18.168). Significantly, treatment with metronidazole was simultaneously found to be a protective factor in the two groups (OR=0.042; OR=0.013). Eighteen sequence types (STs) were identified. Among the CDI group, the isolates were predominantly toxin A and toxin B positive (A+B+) strains and genotype ST2 was the epidemic clone. In the CDC group, the dominant strains were A+B+ and ST81 was the epidemic clone. Conclusions: The prevalence of CDC and CDI in our ICUs was relatively high, suggesting the importance of routine screening to detect the acquisition of this pathogen. Future prevention and treatment strategies for C. difficile -related disease should consider hospital stays, enteral nutrition, underlying comorbidities, and the use of combined antibiotics. Moreover, metronidazole could be a protective factor for both CDI and CDC, which could be used empirically .