In symptomatic patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who underwent multiplex PCR stool testing, non-Clostridium difficile enteric infections were identified in 17% of the population, a recent study found. The cross-sectional analysis included 9,403 patients who underwent 13,231 stool tests with a gastrointestinal pathogen PCR panel during a diarrheal illness from March 2015 to May 2017. The primary outcome was the presence of an infection. Secondary outcomes included endoscopic and histologic predictors of infection, and IBD outcomes following testing. Among the findings:

• 277 patients with Crohn’s disease (CD), 300 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), and 8,826 patients without IBD underwent 454,503, and 12,275 tests, respectively.
• Compared to patients without IBD, patients with IBD were less likely to test positive.
• Compared to patients without IBD, CD had a higher prevalence of norovirus and Campylobacter, whereas UC had a lower prevalence of norovirus and a higher prevalence of Campylobacter, Plesiomonas, and Escherichia coli species.
• Of 77 patients who underwent endoscopy, there were no major endoscopic or histologic predictors of a positive test.