2236. Stool-Derived Inflammatory Mediators Serve as Biomarkers of Severity in Clostridium difficile Infection

Abstract

Background Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a major public health concern and frequently results in severe disease, including death. Predicting subsequent complications early in the course can help optimize treatments and improve outcomes. However, models based on clinical criteria alone are not accurate and/or do not validate. We hypothesized that inflammatory mediators from the stool would be biomarkers for severity and complications.MethodsSubjects were included after testing positive for toxigenic C. difficile by the clinical microbiology laboratory via enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for glutamate dehydrogenase and toxins A/B, with reflex to tcdB gene PCR for discordants. Stool was thawed on ice, diluted 1:1 with PBS and protease inhibitor, centrifuged, and the supernatant was analyzed by a custom antibody-linked bead array with 17 inflammatory mediators. Measurements were normalized and log-transformed. IDSA severity was defined by serum white blood cell count > 15000 cells/µL or creatinine 1.5-fold above baseline. Primary 30-day outcomes were all-cause mortality and attributable disease-related complications (DRC): ICU admission, colectomy, and/or death. Analyses included principal components, permutational multivariate ANOVA (PERMANOVA), and logistic regression ± L1 regularization and 5-fold cross validation. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AuROC) was computed.ResultsWe included 225 subjects, with 124 females (55.1%), average age 58.5 (±17), and more PCR+ than toxin EIA+ (170 vs. 55, respectively). IDSA severity, death, and DRCs occurred in 79 (35.1%), 14 (6.2%), and 12 (5.3%) subjects, respectively. PCA and PERMANOVA showed IDSA severity (P = 0.009) but not death or DRCs associated with the panel (figure). Several inflammatory mediators associated with IDSA severity and death (table). Machine learning models had AuROCs of 0.77 (IDSA severity), 0.84 (death), and 0.7 (DRCs).ConclusionWe found that specific inflammatory mediators from the stool of patients with CDI associate with severity and complications. These results are promising, but need replication in a larger dataset and should be incorporated into models that include clinical covariates prior to deployment. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.