[Chronic cough as the presenting feature of temporal arteritis]. / Toux chronique révélant une maladie de Horton.

We report a 70-year-old woman who presented with a chronic cough of 3-month duration, secondarily associated with fever and weight loss. She had no other symptoms. Physical examination was unremarkable and laboratory tests showed an increase level of acute phase reactants. Thoracic, abdominal and sinus computed tomographic scan was normal and bronchoscopy showed a non specific mucosa inflammation. Despite the absence of characteristic manifestations of temporal arteritis, a temporal artery biopsy was performed and disclosed evidence of typical temporal arteritis.

Epidemiology of recurrences or reinfections of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea.

Approximately 15 to 35% of patients with a first episode of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea relapse within 2 months. Between 1994 and 1997, strains from 93 hospitalized patients with C. difficile recurrences were fingerprinted by using both serotyping and PCR-ribotyping. The results showed that 48.4% of clinical recurrences were, in fact, reinfections with a different strain of C. difficile. Rates of clinical recurrences could therefore be reduced by implementing strict isolation precautions.