Vancomycin/ Clostridium Difficile

[Guest guest]

I think this those pediatric studies are fascinating for several reasons:

Hope, being the first reason.

Secondly, of one of my doctors here put me on a rotating program of Xifaxan (Rifaximin) for a while. I rarely felt better than when I was on it and my bowel movements were perfect. I noticed online that it is being studied in a trial comparing Rifaximin to Vancomycin for the treatment of Clostridium Difficile. See http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00269399?cond=%22Diarrhea%22 & rank=30

The other reason I find it interesting is because "Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that proliferates when normal colonic flora have been altered, most commonly due to antibiotic use". I have always suspected the bulk of my ensuing health problems are somehow related to these two events in my life:

A. The long term use of oral antibiotics for severe acne for several years as an early teenager.

B. A severe bout of food poisoning that put me in the hospital for almost a week in my late teens.

Prior to these two events I was PERFECTLY healthy and virtually never sick! But my health went slowly downhill after that period and I was diagnosed with PSC by age 25 (though I was suffering the symptoms of the disease well before that).

My gut feeling (haha) has always been that PSC may have a very big connection to intestinal or colon flora imbalance and gut permeability abnormalities even though I don't have a formal diagnosis of Chron's or UC.

I'm going to ask my doc for C. difficile toxin testing and see how that goes.

Anyone else have similar stories or thoughts on this?

Jeff in FL

PSC 1989

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The oral vancomycin study from 1998 is this article: KL, KM 1998 Oral vancomycin: treatment of primary sclerosing cholangitis in children with inflammatory bowel disease. J. Pediatr. Gastroenterol. Nutr. 27: 580-583. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9822326The full text is available here:http://www.jpgn.org/pt/re/jpgn/fulltext.00005176-199811000-00015.htmBest regards,Dave (father of (22); PSC 07/03; UC 08/03)Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.

[Guest guest]

Something else interesting I found about C. Difficile:

http://www.cdd.com.au/html/expertise/diseaseinfo/clostridiumdifficle%20.html

And:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fecal_bacteriotherapy

(note the one instance of a reported "cure" of psc)

I think this those pediatric studies are fascinating for several reasons:

Hope, being the first reason.

Secondly, of one of my doctors here put me on a rotating program of Xifaxan (Rifaximin) for a while. I rarely felt better than when I was on it and my bowel movements were perfect. I noticed online that it is being studied in a trial comparing Rifaximin to Vancomycin for the treatment of Clostridium Difficile. See http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00269399?cond=%22Diarrhea%22 & rank=30

The other reason I find it interesting is because "Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that proliferates when normal colonic flora have been altered, most commonly due to antibiotic use". I have always suspected the bulk of my ensuing health problems are somehow related to these two events in my life:

A. The long term use of oral antibiotics for severe acne for several years as an early teenager.

B. A severe bout of food poisoning that put me in the hospital for almost a week in my late teens.

Prior to these two events I was PERFECTLY healthy and virtually never sick! But my health went slowly downhill after that period and I was diagnosed with PSC by age 25 (though I was suffering the symptoms of the disease well before that).

My gut feeling (haha) has always been that PSC may have a very big connection to intestinal or colon flora imbalance and gut permeability abnormalities even though I don't have a formal diagnosis of Chron's or UC.

I'm going to ask my doc for C. difficile toxin testing and see how that goes.

Anyone else have similar stories or thoughts on this?

Jeff in FL

PSC 1989

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a message dated 2/10/2008 12:38:01 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, rhodesdavid (AT) insightbb (DOT) com writes:

The oral vancomycin study from 1998 is this article: KL, KM 1998 Oral vancomycin: treatment of primary sclerosing cholangitis in children with inflammatory bowel disease. J. Pediatr. Gastroenterol. Nutr. 27: 580-583. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9822326The full text is available here:http://www.jpgn.org/pt/re/jpgn/fulltext.00005176-199811000-00015.htmBest regards,Dave (father of (22); PSC 07/03; UC 08/03)

Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.

Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.

[Guest guest]

Hi Jeff;

Thanks for posting these articles. So if I am reading correctly,

rifampin (rifampicin) would be an alternative to vancomycin for

eradicating Clostridium difficile? For someone who is already taking

rifampin (for pruritus) would there be any benefit to adding or

switching to oral vancomycin?

My son's hepatologist would not consider giving him vancomycin without

seeing additional results from the Stanford group. The 1998 paper had

information on only 3 patients. The best thing that Drs. Davies and

could do is to publish their recent results.

Best regards,

Dave R.