Two-, six-, and 12-minute walking tests in respiratory disease.

Over the ensuing seven months she had three more clinical relapses, each accompanied by reappearance in the stools of either the organism or its cytotoxin, or both. Each improvement after vancomycin (eight to 14-day- courses) was accompanied by disappearance of the organism. At one point she was given cholestyramine, but she was unable to tolerate it. Her illness was punctuated by malnutrition and episodes of heart failure. She was given no other antibiotics. After the sixth relapse maintenance treatment with oral vancomycin 125 mg eight-hourly was begun. With this regimen diarrhoea was controlled and stools over the next 10 weeks remained negative for C difficile and its cytotoxin. There was no adverse reaction to vancomycin throughout.