The interplay of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) poses a critical clinical challenge.

The resultant inflammatory milieu and its impact on outcomes remain incompletely understood, especially among vulnerable subgroups such as elderly patients, those with diabetes, and individuals with cancer.

This study aimed to characterize inflammatory markers and composite inflammatory severity scores—such as Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II), Confusion, Urea, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure, and age ≥ 65 years (CURB-65), National Early Warning Score (NEWS), and the Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index (SII)—in hospitalized Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with and without CDI, and to evaluate their prognostic implications across key clinical subgroups.

Concurrent CDI intensifies systemic inflammation and adverse clinical trajectories in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Elevations in inflammatory markers and severity scores predict worse outcomes, especially in high-risk subgroups.

Early recognition and targeted interventions, including infection control and supportive measures, may attenuate disease severity and improve patient survival.

Read More